In Ruins
by Lanie Kay-Aleese
Summary: After becoming Champion, Satoshi doesn't know where he wants his life to go. But when he goes to a place he's visited in the past, he finds himself visiting the past quite literally, with a bitter and lovesick Shigeru along for the ride. Palletshipping.
1. Chapter 1

**disclaimer**  
Nintendo owns Pokemon; Pokemon owns me; I own a lawyer, and he tells me that Nintendo doesn't care what I do as long as I don't own money.

* * *

**In Ruins****  
**chapter one

* * *

Satoshi didn't want anyone to misunderstand. He had never been stupid, he'd just been too naive to wonder why so few "adults" wandered across the countryside. He'd figured that they got boring at some point, that they just became mere shadows of once-interesting people. He imagined that their backs started going out, and then, they'd just be stuck in that city where the arthritis hit, and they'd have to stay there forever.

It was in his thirteenth year when he began to understand. It took two more years before he began the journey that would lead him home.

It was in his thirteenth year when he passed through the Orange Islands, to visit Lapras. When he was there for two weeks, and in that time, no one recognized him as their champion. When he went to visit Takeshi, and the boy looked right past him and straight to Kasumi, and never regained his focus. When he was walking down a country lane with Pikachu, and saw another pokemon battered and abandoned.

When he kept walking right past it.

When, in one instant, he nearly won the world, and at the last possible moment, realized that a million people had done that before. And in the million faces of the crowd, he saw all the people he'd met along his journey - seeing people who'd become his friends. People whom he could no longer remember. People who likely no longer remembered _him_. He'd crumpled, at the side of the battlefield on national television, at Indigo plateau, knowing that he'd spent the last six year of his life chasing a dream that was as transitory as himself.

When Satoshi came home on the eve of his 15th birthday, Hanako had jumped from the table and wept with him. That night, he went to bed and slept for three days. When he woke up, he was changed.

Time had passed since then, and Satoshi laughed less often - if at all - and by then Hanako was worried that she had been wrong in letting him cry with her. After all, she had been part of the throng that had gathered in Ookido-sensei's lab and watched the deciding battle. She, along with everyone else, had _seen_ him win the championship and lose something else.

But time had passed.

It had been a year since Satoshi had slept with the stars above his head, and he didn't want anyone to misunderstand that he was still a child. That was the purpose of the pokemon journey, anyhow - to grow up and realize who you were. And Satoshi had grown into the beginnings of a man, without knowing who he was, and without knowing what dream could hold a lifetime of value. He'd finished with his childish dreams, but now he had nothing to support him.

He'd finished his journey too soon.

So Hanako did the only thing that she could: She sent him back.

* * *

When Satoshi found himself standing outside his house, still only dressed in pajamas and smelling like the previous day, he'd not known what to do with himself. His mom had slipped into his room while he slept, and packed his backpack with all the essentials - she'd even labeled his underwear for each day of the week - but she had neglected to tell him what he was supposed to do. He didn't have anywhere to go, and suddenly the empty hole that had been eating at his chest swelled to impossible size. There was no better place to go than to the place where he always started. That place, of course, was Ookido-sensei's laboratory.

The front door to the lab was unlocked when he and Pikachu found it. He turned the handle, slowly pushed the door open and peered into the downstairs room. A few plants and couches decorated the space, spartan as always; there were few, if any, personal items, and for that matter, there were no signs of persons who would accumulate such things, either.

"Ookido-sensei! Kenji!" he called out with hands cupped around his mouth. "_Hey, is anybody in here?_"

His voice didn't echo, but it didn't garner response, either. Satoshi walked inside, thoughtlessly letting the door shut behind him. Pikachu darted between his legs, barely escaping the door with a soft chirp.

"Sorry," Satoshi said lowly, moving forward and plopping down on a sofa against the back wall. "It's just too early, Pikachu..." He yawned, and adjusted himself on the couch.

For a futon sofa, it was miserably uncomfortable. He bent forward and shrugged his backpack off. He lifted one of his legs onto one of the armrests, and the other on the otherwise functionless glass coffee table; and the rest of himself he wedged into the intersection of two cushions. Pikachu jumped on top of his chest, crawled up to his shoulders, and laid down cozily between her trainer's neck and the armrest.

It wasn't perfect, but it was better. Satoshi closed his eyes and shifted on the couch, as if planning to nap in that very place. He had just settled into a dream when a hand caught his shoulder and recoiled quickly.

"What the heck!" cried out the hand's owner. "What's that-"

Satoshi turned over and cracked his eyes open.

Ookido-sensei's apprentice stood mere feet in front of Satoshi with an addled expression. Though, to say that he 'stood' was not entirely accurate, as he was hunched over by what appeared to be several tons of luggage and archaeological equipment that were strapped to his arms, waist, and shoulders. Pikachu let out a shrill noise at an un-sheathed pick-axe which dangled precariously near its' head. The danger posed by the pick-axe (and other equipment besides) went largely unnoticed to Kenji, who, besides surveying Satoshi, was concentrating on maintaining balance on both of his feet, a task which he had never completely mastered. The fact that his headband had fallen over his eyes did not instill great hope to Pikachu, either.

"Satoshi? Is that you?" Kenji shuffled his arms as though he could lift up his impromptu eye patches with his elbows and thus reclaim his vision.

"Yeah," said Satoshi, sitting himself up. "Pikachu's here, too."

"Pika pi," confirmed the yellow pokemon.

"Well, if Pikachu's here, I guess it's you after all," said Kenji, his voice light. "It's nice to see you out."

Satoshi bristled instinctively, even while the traces of sleep were clinging to his eyes. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and muttered, "I've been around. You were probably just too busy researching to notice."

"I've been busy lately, that's true," Kenji agreed. He shuffled his feet and all of his gear clunked around him, clattering as object clashed against object; weights banged against weights.

"Kenji, what are you _doing_?" Satoshi asked. "Are you about to travel or something?"

"Yeah, actually. Could you... give me a hand maybe?"

"Yeah, sure," said Satoshi, getting up. He walked a full circle around Kenji before scratching at the mess of his hair helplessly.

"Kenji," he said, "I don't think that there's anything I could take from you that wouldn't make you fall over."

"Pika pika," complained Pikachu as the pick-axe wobbled closer to its' head. She cowered on top of the depression in the futon cushion left from Satoshi's form.

Kenji shook his head and his headband resituated itself over his eyebrows. "It's okay," he said to Satoshi with a grin. "I'll just go the rest of the way by myself."

"Good luck," said Satoshi. He followed after Kenji, though he couldn't help focusing on the room as much as his friend. The place looked exactly as he'd always remembered it, really, but like an air had settled over it and not been lifted. It made him feel peculiarly young.

"You and the professor have been traveling a lot lately, haven't you?" he asked.

Kenji bent his knees and began to push himself against the door. He obviously had too much girth - and he obviously wasn't going to let that stop him. "Kind of," he answered. "I'm going on my second research trip this month."

Satoshi shoved his hands in his pockets. "So where you are going, exactly?"

"To the pokecenter," said Kenji.

"Yeah, but after that."

Kenji grunted out, "Saffron City."

Satoshi rolled his eyes. "For some reason, I feel like you're only going to Saffron City on the way to somewhere else..."

"Naturally," agreed Kenji. "Oh, my. I think some of the paint on the door has come off."

Pikachu slapped itself on the forehead with a depressed little 'chu'.

Satoshi ignored him and tried again. "Before you and Ookido-sensei leave to wherever you're going, can you find him for me? I, uh, need to talk to him."

"I'd love to," Kenji said, half-ignoring Satoshi in favor of stepping back to critically consider the physical dimensions of the doorway, "But he's already in Johto. I'm going to visit him."

"So that's what you're doing!" Satoshi exclaimed. Then he paused. "You do realize that you're not going to fit through that door, right? You're about two times wider than it."

"Maybe I'll walk through it sideways," said Kenji. "It might help if you pushed me."

A few minutes later, after all of the luggage had been successfully dislodged from both the door frame of the Lab and from Kenji's arms. Pikachu wandered about the bushes, smelling and frolicking at random, and Satoshi stretched out with immense satisfaction himself.

"Thanks for the help," said Kenji gratefully from his side. "But if you don't mind me asking, what were you doing sleeping on the sofa anyway?"

Satoshi had the presence of mind to be embarrassed. "I came over to visit Ookido-sensei. I was hoping he could help me. But I was tired so I figured I'd just take a nap..."

"Any reason you weren't napping at your house?"

Satoshi stared at the green-stained toes of his Converses miserably. "My mom kind of kicked me out this morning."

"Really?"

"Yeah," he griped. "I didn't even get breakfast before I was out on the porch."

Kenji patted him on the shoulder in commiseration. "That's rough. Your mom makes a mean breakfast."

"That's not the half of it-" Satoshi started, but the sound of a computerized Pidgey twitter heralded the arrival of a mail on Kenji's phone. He fished the device from his pocket and scanned his message quickly.

"What's it say?" asked Satoshi.

"The cab driver got lost, but he'll be here within ten minutes."

"I'll wait with you," Satoshi offered.

With the few minutes of suddenly available rest, Kenji was happy to settle into the grass with a warm feeling. It pricked against his skin where his shirt rode up, tickling him, but he was too content to move. Satoshi followed suit, layying down next to him. He folded his arms behind his head to stare up at the sky.

"When you, Kasumi, and Takeshi traveled though Johto, did you ever visit the Ruins of Alph?" Kenij's voice asked from beside him.

Satoshi turned to Kenji, apparently struggling to gather an answer. "That's kind of random, isn't it?"

"Just a question."

"Oh. In that case, yeah," Satoshi said finally. "When I was... twelve? I think we went to the Ruins of Alph to see Ookido-sensei. He was working with some scientists who were saving a colony of Omanyte."

"Ah, yes. I remember that research. Outlying Site A."

"The where?" asked Satoshi, rather blankly.

Kenji explained, "Outlying Site A. It's one of several sites that constitute The Ruins of Alph. The one with the reservoir, right?" Satoshi nodded, and Kenji continued. "Alph has many different excavation sites, but they are all connected by this long, long series of caves that go underneath a desert."

"That sounds big."

"It's the biggest archaeological complex in the world. And that's where Ookido-sensei is right now. I'm going to join him to supervise the last stage of an excavation in one of the more central sites."

"But if everything's dug up, then-"

Kenji interrupted, "Even once everything is dug up, there's a lot of work left, you know. Most of the work is post-excavation, actually. Shigeru's team is researching the link between ancient pokemon and humans. It's generally agreed among scholars that Pokemon battling is relatively recent, but Shigeru thinks that mankind has always used Pokemon's powers, just in different ways."

"Shigeru's there?" asked Satoshi. Suddenly his attention was unfeigned, and the thought of his oldest friend swelled up in his mind.

"Yeah. He's leading a whole team, you know."

"Wow." Satoshi couldn't hide how impressed he was. "What's his team researching?"

"Shigeru has a theory that ancient people used to worship things with power in them. Rivers, mountains, the sun... all those things became gods. And that's why they worshiped certain pokemon, too. At Alph there appears to be a connection between nature worship _and _Unown worship. You know about the Unown, don't you?"

Satoshi answered slowly, "Yeah, kind of. When I was twelve, there was this girl named Molly, and she made friends with the Unown, and got trapped in their illusion-"

"That's right," Kenji recalled. "You were part of the Greenfield Incident. In that case, I won't need to explain much about what the Unown do. You probably know that Molly's parents were both abducted by the Unown while doing research. The place where they were taken from was the Ruins of Alph, and accordingly, we think that that place might be the Unown's origin."

"You seem to know a lot about the research, for having never even gone yet."

"I haven't had much to do since Ookido-sensei left, so I've spent the past week memorizing his emails," said Kenji.

"You're so weird," Satoshi grinned. "But that explains it, I guess."

Kenji eyed Satoshi. "What do you mean?"

"You told me that the Unown pulled two people into another dimension before. And I saw what happened with the Unown and Molly. So, going to a place where there were all these powerful Unown seems kind of stupid."

"Well, if I'm weird, then you're stupid."

"Am not!"

Kenji pointed a finger at Satoshi critically."How many stupid things have you done since I've met you?"

"Uhh..."

"Right," said Kenji, to Satoshi's grimace, "So if there was more to learn, then don't you think that researchers would willingly go back to make new discoveries, even if it _was_ dangerous? And for what grand purpose did you, oh great Satoshi, do dangerous things?"

"Well, I was... protecting pokemon... helping people... And okay, so it was dangerous, maybe, kind of," he admitted, letting his stubborn pride be punctured just slightly before continuing on, "But knowledge isn't exactly worth risking your life for! I always did it for way better reasons than that!"

Kenji punched him in the arm. "Whatever you say that makes you sleep at night."

"Ow, stop it!" Satoshi rubbed the spot above his elbow where Kenji had hit him. "What was that for?"

"Just friendly teasing. Anyway, you probably wouldn't even need a reason before going off and doing something dangerous," Kenji added.

"No way. That was_ then_. I was younger," Satoshi defended.

"Yeah but you're still a wimp. You look like you're going to bruise," Kenji mocked.

"Am not a wimp," said Satoshi, letting go of his arm immediately.

"Besides," Kenji continued. "I know you. You can't act like you wouldn't leap at the chance to do something stupid in a dangerous situation again."

"Yeah well I _wouldn't_!" Satoshi shouted in defense.

"Don't be obstinate, Satoshi-_chan_."

"I'm not being obstinate!" Satoshi refuted stubbornly, "And don't call me that, geez!"

"So you really think you could resist the urge to act stupid?"

"Of course!" Satoshi huffed.

"Alright, then prove it."

Pikachu stuck her head out of a bush where she'd been following an odd scent, and sniffed her nose curiously. Satoshi made a similar expression.

"Uh, prove what?" he asked curiously.

"Prove that you wouldn't do something dangerous even _if_ you were in a dangerous situation," Kenji answered him succinctly. He got to his feet, and shaded his eyes. Satoshi mimicked the action and saw what appeared to be a trail of dust approaching from the main road to Pallet.

"How am I supposed to do that?" he wondered aloud. "And why would I willing get myself into a dangerous situation? Isn't that just as stupid -"

Kenji cut him off with a low whistle. "... Looks like that's the taxi in the distance. I guess it's time for me to go, then," he said, and picked up his bags.

"Woah, wait! You're leaving now!" Satoshi exclaimed. "Wait, I haven't proven myself yet!"

Kenji nodded, his expression starkly placid in comparison to Satoshi's open confusion.

"Of course I'm leaving now, Satoshi. Don't tell me you thought I was carrying all of this equipment for no reason. I need to get to the archaeological site as soon as possible. I'll see you in a couple of months-"

"Months!"

"Pi Pika?" the yellow pokemon mimicked as the white taxi turned onto the road in front of Ookido-sensei's lab.

"Well, it's a short enough journey to Johto by train, and a few days' trip by van once we get there. But if our archaeological team cracks the puzzle of the Alph Ruins as Ookido-Sensei thinks we may, it'll be enough media coverage to make us all rich and famous a hundred years over. That is, if we don't... Oh, I shouldn't say that."

"Say what! Say what! Tell me anyway." Satoshi begged.

"Oh nothing, nothing. Just that..." The taxi came to a stop. "Shigeru mentioned that if we're not careful, we could anger some legendary pokemon, die horrible bloody deaths, especially me, come to think of it. Well you know what I mean. And, ah! The taxi's here at last! Pardon me, driver! Could you please help me with these bags, and-"

"I'll do it."

Kenji turned around to face his shorter friend. "Excuse me?"

Satoshi stood before Kenji with his cheeks flushed and a spark in his eyes. It was an expression he'd seen hundreds of times - just not recently.

"I'm going to go with you," Satoshi declared, "And I'll prove it that I'm not some stupid kid! Even though it's dangerous, I won't get into any trouble."

With a raised eyebrow, Kenji purveyed Satoshi before he spoke.

"Are you sure, Satoshi? Just because _I_ think that you need to _prove_ yourself doesn't mean that you should go on this _dangerous_ research dig with us..."

"It's not like you have a choice, anyway. I know where you're going and I can do whatever I want!" Satoshi curled his fingers into fists, as if he was daring Kenji to argue it. He didn't, in fact, and seemed almost suspiciously willing to give in.

"Okay, okay, I won't try and stop you," he said a bit louder than he really needed to, "That'd be pretty stupid of me. I guess you'll just have to prove yourself..."

"Yeah, that's right. So you better call Ookido-sensei and Shigeru and tell them that I'm on my way!"

"Well, a mail couldn't hurt..." Kenji fished his phone out of his pocket. Turning from him, Satoshi looked for his pet. "Let's go, Pikachu!"

"Pika pika chu!" the pokemon assented, trotting up her trainer's arm and onto his shoulder. She seemed quite happy, and while Satoshi wasn't quite _happy _he was at the least a bit smug at having called Kenji's bluff. He looked at Kenji in the eye, smugly, then got into the taxi cab and closed the door firmly behind him.

Kenji didn't really seem to care. From the other side of the window, Satoshi watched him slip his cellphone back into his pocket with a broad grin, and loading their bags into the trunk, humming to himself in what seemed to Satoshi as an inexplicably self-gloating way. After all, he'd just lost their argument - hadn't he?

* * *

_"Oh, Shigerruuuuu, I brought you a present!"_

The quiet of the open-air laboratory was a pleasant, natural one. Of course, conducting an immense research project over a mysterious, ancient ruin in the middle of a desert didn't make for the easiest environment. Sand had a habit to not only seep into every inch of the furniture, bodies, and technological equipment, but it would storm into the room when any person broke the tent's seal and emerged from the outside.

Even worse than the infernal sand was the habit of some people who had grown so used to the sand that it no longer bothered them. These people, upon reaching this point of maladaptation, interacted with their less fortunate colleagues in a mischievous and unbecoming manner. Many of the former would add sand to the latter's sandwiches, for love of irony. Others, such as (apparently) Kenji, apprentice of the revered Ookido-sensei, would act as though the sand no longer existed, and would use this as means of 'accidental' torment.

For this reason, Shigeru would not let it be known that he particularly disliked sand. It would undermine all of his hard-won efforts to appear as an equal if his colleagues pulled pranks on him. Not to mention that he had pride, and dignity; but quite frankly, he didn't know how much sanity he could possibly possess if he were to choose to spend the rest of his days like this.

"_Shigeru_, turn around, I brought you-"

"A present?" Shigeru asked tonelessly, moving away from his table and turning in his chair to face his visitor.

"Oh, did I say a present?" Kenji laughed at his err, leaning against one of the pole supports. "I meant to say _presence_. My lovely presence."

He flexed his puny biceps for emphasis.

"Wow, Kenji. With a physique like that, it's amazing that I didn't spend the past three weeks without you in uncontrollable sorrow," Shigeru deadpanned. "Are you going to stand in the door all day or are you going to come inside?"

Kenji turned his head and started, as if he had just realized that he was leaning on the door frames.

"Silly me, looks like I forgot to close the tent flap!" he said, (and did not, in fact, close the tent flap on this realization).

"I'm sure it's just because you were out in the sun too long. Maybe you should lay down a while."

If it had been any one else but Kenji, he would've been yelling already to get them to leave him alone. But Kenji had to be an exception, because he had _blackmail_. It had been two years since Kenji had coerced him into admitting that he was, and always had been, flaming gay. Shigeru imagined that his life had been rather downhill from that point . This ignored the fact that, beforehand, he would have compared his life to an uphill slope on Mount Everest without any oxygen supply. Never mind that, of course.

Kenji had indeed remained in place, holding the door open and exposing the innards of the tent to a world of _joyous sand_, and now cast his gaze around the room, posturing curiosity.

"I don't think closing the tent flap makes much difference; the sand's already everywhere anyhow. And it makes such a nice exfoliant for the skin, don't you think?"

"I tend to find my research easier to perform when it isn't buried in sand," Shigeru answered.

"But don't you love the challenge?"

"The only thing that's being challenged right now is my patience," Shigeru said, smoothly. "You can go back through that flap and leave right now."

"Oh, Shigeru, you're such a tease..."

"It's only teasing if it's not serious."

Kenji shook his finger at Shigeru. "On the topic of serious, I was packing my bags back at the lab in Pallet Town and..."

In spite of his efforts to remain calm, Shigeru couldn't help but find it to be rather annoying that Kenji still hadn't closed off the tent from the desert. This was his job. How was he supposed to analyze a sample that was covered in sand? Not that Kenji would understand, he didn't even wear gloves when dealing with raw meat... He had a whole artbook filled with sketches of his grandfather...

Shigeru rubbed his temples with his forefingers, silently repeating the only - and very weak consolation that he _did_ have - _'Remember the blackmail.'_

"...and so," Kenji broke in. "I brought along Satoshi..."

All coherent thought squealed to a halt.

_"What?"_

"You know, Satoshi from Pallet town, pokemon league champion-"

"I said _what_, not _who_! You idiot!" Shigeru glared at Kenji with as much ferocity as he possibly could. Kenji was so startled that he actually dropped the tent flap behind him.

"Why are you so angry?" asked Kenji. "I thought you two were old friends... had put your differences aside..."

Shigeru threw up his hands. "That's not the point! Think about what you just did. Satoshi isn't a researcher, he's a pokemon trainer! What do you think he's going to do here for three months, our bills? Our taxes? Our Housekeeping? Let's say he gets the job of making dinner. Heaven forbid he tries to cook something without setting it on fire. After he loses that job in all of one day, he's going to get bored and then he'll do something stupid! And I'll have to stop him! Don't you get it? It's dangerous! He's dangerous!"

Kenji looked torn between fearful and put out.

"I'm sorry, Shigeru. I didn't think of it like that," he said, sullen for only a moment prior to recovering with an optimistic grin. "But I made a bet with him about whether he'd do something dangerous or not, and he says that he won't."

The young researcher's eyes narrowed. "The stakes of that bet had better be high."

There was a long pause between them, during which Shigeru held his breath and Kenji stared into space.

"Stakes?" asked Kenji.

Shigeru's stomach dropped. In a flash, he saw the future: it was snowing and he was homeless, hungry, hated by the entire world, and - most unspeakably horrific of all horrors- he hadn't bathed.

"...Why?" Shigeru asked, choking back a groan, struggling to speak.

"Oh, well, I don't know why. I suppose we simply forgot to set stakes. It was sort of an impulse thing," Kenji replied.

"An... impulse thing."

"Yeah," Kenji shrugged. "And when Satoshi seemed like he had nothing better to do, I just thought, oh, well, I'm sure that Shigeru would like to see one of his good friends. And of course, Shigeru loves a good surprise!"

"When have I _ever_ liked surprises!"

Kenji stared into the distance, contemplating. At last, he broke out into a smile. "Yep! I really got you good this time!"

"If you don't leave in the next three seconds," said Shigeru, his voice frosty, "I will attack you and bury you in this godforsaken desert."

Within those three seconds, the room rapidly returned to its former quiet, and the stifled feeling abated to an extent. Yet, somehow, Shigeru managed to turn around and refocus on his research as if it had all been an immensely disturbing dream.

The fact that the entire sample was covered in several inches of sand was ignored entirely.

There was only so much of this nightmare that Shigeru could wallow in at once.

* * *

He was bored.

It had been two days, seventeen hours, fifty-four minutes and seventeen seconds, no, eighteen seconds, no nineteen seconds... And Satoshi was bored.

For one thing, the excavation was already largely finished. As a result, everything that the researchers were doing had to do with post-excavation analysis, which was really just another way to describe the life-threatening monotony of cataloging. Of paperwork. There were a couple of people and pokemon still out in trenches but Satoshi was definitely, definitely not allowed to join them, and it's not as if he wanted to anyway, since all they did was scrape back the _thinnest_ layer of dirt at a time and then standing around _talking about it. _As if the dirt had changed in some inexpressible way and become interesting, which was actually impossible because it was _dirt_.

Of course, scraping dirt probably would have probably proved less disastrous than that one very terrible point when Satoshi had suffered his short-lived stint in the kitchen.

He'd wanted a purpose; he'd somehow gotten swept up into Kenji's excitement without remembering that he didn't really care about this sort of thing. It left him just as empty as he'd been when his mom had left him on the porch and told him to 'go.' Except it was hotter here than Pallet. Holy Ho-Oh it was hot; the research tents were sizzling on a furnace that stretched endlessly on every horizon. And the sand. There was sand everywhere. He had sand in his sandwiches at lunch, and the vile, bile-inducing sensation of tiny rocks gritted between his teeth was so off-putting that it _nearly_ made him not hungry (that he ate the sandwiches anyway was a testament to his obsession with food).

He was actually a bit pissed off when he arrived, because apparently, he was the only person to notice any of it.

The ever-helpful Kenji had explained to him that most of the researchers had adapted to life in the desert. Satoshi had explained to Kenji that it wasn't adaptation as much as it was insanity.

Satoshi tried to visualize Shigeru in the situation, and he could see him being single-minded during work, not minding the conditions... until after he was done working, and would probably have a panic attack over all the sand in his hair, clothes, etc. Naturally, this led to Satoshi wondering exactly how Shigeru was still alive and functional after three months.

Not that Satoshi could say whether or not Shigeru _was_ still sane.

The fact was that Satoshi hadn't even seen Shigeru yet, because, quote, _'Shigeru Ookido refuses to leave his personal lab until he has completed his current project'._ He wasn't taking visitors; he wasn't taking meals with everyone else.

Which was kind of weird, actually. Satoshi had had enough of being stuck inside of a stuffy room doing laundry. Seriously. _Laundry_. What was he, a housekeeper?

And on top of everything else, Ookido-sensei wasn't anywhere around. He had apparently been called to the most nearby city, which meant that Satoshi couldn't ask him 'What should I do next to maybe help you out because I was kicked out and have nowhere to go and nothing to do?'.

After calling Pikachu over to him, Satoshi put his things down and wandered out of doors. Maybe a walk would help him deal with the stress better.

* * *

Shigeru was pissed.

He had so many reasons to be angry and half the attention to concentrate anywhere but at the distinct openings of displeasure; at the searing pain that shot up from his left thigh, and then at the person who had caused the injury years ago, and fate in general, and it was getting cold. Bad cold. And he'd dropped his gear when he fell and it was now who-knows-where in the sand, getting buried while he was clutching his leg in pain.

And so what if it had been his fault for sitting at his desk for too long without doing any stretches? Even if he still had his gear, he wouldn't use it to call for help. He could deal with this on his own. It was his problem, and no one else's.

Shigeru stared up at the sky above him. The sun had set some thirty minutes ago and the sky was rapidly losing its color. The constellations, which always appeared to keep their poise in the deepest darkness, were mocking him from far, far away. _You think this is cold? Loser._

Oh, God. He was imagining that the stars were sentient beings. And he wasn't even cold enough to write that off to hypothermia.

With a groan, Shigeru shot his hand out to his thigh and heaved himself upright. He needed to work out more. He needed to get _out_ more. If only he could get to his feet and shuffle towards the Ruins, this would be much, much easier.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on getting his leg to work for him. He imagined all of the muscles unkinking, just like his physical therapist had explained, and the good news was that Shigeru knew that the mental therapy helped. The bad news was that it didn't help quickly, and he might just die before unkinking happened.

Okay, so that was an exaggeration, but that didn't mean he wanted the skin on his face to be rubbed raw from the sand and the ice. Nor need he mention his appendages being consumed with frostbite. He did want to have children someday, thankyouverymuch.

Ah. Another completely ridiculous statement. How was a gay man to have children, exactly?

Stupid leg. Stupid desert. Stupid cold. Stupid -

_"Shigeru?"_

The voice cut off his thoughts like a knife through butter. He turned his head towards the disembodied voice.

"... Is that you?" asked the voice. _No, it's just a Shigeru-shaped rock_, Shigeru was about to say, but thought better of it as soon as he realized who was approaching him. Satoshi. Of course, Shigeru didn't need to see the face to guess that it was Satoshi. Wherever he went, he ran into Satoshi, even despite his best efforts. It was some conspiracy of the universe.

He squinted his eyes to get a better look. Satoshi had picked up his pace, jogging toward him with Pikachu at his heels, matching step for step. He looked older.

"Hey," said Shigeru, cool.

Satoshi skidded to a halt in front of him.

"I've been looking for you - _for the past three days_!" He put his hands on his knees to catch his breath, and once he'd deeply inhaled several times he continued fervently, "So - what are you doing - just sitting in the desert?"

Shigeru gestured to his leg. "I got hurt," he said.

"What happened? Are you injured?"

"Satoshi."

"What? What? Is it-"

"Look, I'm fine. Just s_hut up _for a second, okay?"

To Shigeru's surprise - and, honestly, to his - consternation, Satoshi complied. What had happened to the brash, flippant attitude that practically characterized everything about who Satoshi was? He looked at Pikachu, whose eyes looked out at him dimly. She, like Satoshi, looked older.

He'd hoped that if Satoshi stopped annoying him he would be able to gather enough willpower to bring himself to his feet, but the pain wasn't going down like it was supposed to. He'd been massaging his muscle, but it had been no use; the cold was agitating the weakness, locking him in place. A jolt of pain shot up Shigeru's leg, and he clutched at it before he knew what he was even doing. It felt like little needles were stabbing at his bone from every side and he groaned as the world blackened at the edges.

"Can I talk now?" Satoshi whined from beyond his haze.

He could've been mistaken, but Satoshi definitely looked concerned. In any case, Pikachu had long since been staring at him with big, soppy eyes, as if she were apologizing for not knowing how to help.

"Fine," relented Shigeru.

Satoshi scrambled to the ground, determined to look Shigeru in the eye. "If you've broken your leg, I can go get someone," he offered.

Shigeru shook his head.

"No. I just... can't move it; that's all. The muscle's all cramped up," Shigeru made a vague motion towards his stiff limb. It wasn't hurting so badly anymore, but now a creeping, tingling sensation was in its place. Hopefully, the stars would soon clear from the edges of his vision.

"I've been out here for about half an hour now, so the cold hasn't been helping, but it's not a big deal."

"It's only getting colder, why didn't you call anyone?" asked Satoshi, scratching his head on reflex. Shigeru took the moment to look at him. His messy hair was squashed underneath the same hat he'd been wearing for years, but it didn't look so awkward on his face anymore. His shoulders were more broad - not to say he was muscular, but it was a different proportion now. He was taller, even, though from his position on the ground, Shigeru couldn't measure the degree accurately.

"You wouldn't have any of your other pokemon with you, would you?" Shigeru asked.

Satoshi shook his head. "No, I haven't gotten them back from your grandfather yet. Just Pikachu."

Shigeru sighed "I was hoping one of 'em could carry me back to the tent site."

"Oh," said Satoshi, clearly disappointed. Then- "That's no problem, though! I can carry you!"

"...No."

Satoshi crossed his arms and scowled. "C'mon, I'm not a weakling or anything, I can do it."

"I'd rather take my chances out here, thanks," said Shigeru.

"But you're injured-"

"And you're such an idiot that you'll probably end up injuring me even worse," Shigeru pointed out.

"You think I'm an idiot? Fine! You can just - just take care of it yourself, you jerk," Satoshi returned, louder than before.

He turned around and stalked off into the direction from which he'd come. Shigeru lifted his head, cursing himself for being such a smartass. He noticed that Pikachu hadn't left his side. He made eye contact with her, and she anxiously looked at him, then at Satoshi, then at him again, and then in a flash, she was gone, sprinting after Satoshi. Shigeru dropped his head to the sand.

"Satoshi, come back!" he called out. And even though his voice was vaguely muffled, it must have gone through; he was gratified to hear the sound of sand-stuck footsteps returning. Shigeru sat up, contrite.

"So you _do _want my help?" asked Satoshi, his arms folded.

"Yes," Shigeru answered tightly.

"I thought you didn't want my help," Satoshi pushed.

Shigeru sighed in exasperation.

"No," he drawled, "I just meant to say that I didn't want you carrying me back to camp."

"I can always drag you," Satoshi suggested.

"I'd rather use your shoulder, thanks."

"I don't see what's the big deal about letting me carry you back; you obviously can't walk."

"Yeah, except that everyone would see you holding me like I was your bride or something."

Satoshi looked at him with a quirked eyebrow and snickered.

"Who'd think that?" asked Satoshi.

"I don't know, _people_! Now do you mind getting over here?"

Satoshi jogged back the couple of steps towards Shigeru, and squatted next to him.

"What do I do?"

"So yeah, put your arm around my shoulder and I'll support myself on the closest one of yours. Then, we'll stand up," instructed Shigeru. Obediently, Satoshi reached out and slid his arm around Shigeru's back, and settled over his shoulder.

"I'm ready to stand up," said Shigeru. He tried to shake off the weird feeling that came from the contact.

Satoshi slowly unbent his legs, and he jerked Shigeru upright.

"You got it?" asked Satoshi.

"Yeah."

Satoshi took his first step forward, and Shigeru leaned into it as best as he could. There was something awkward about using a person as a crutch. There was more of a trust factor there than with the crutches that he'd had to use before. But it wasn't altogether unpleasant. Shigeru found that he had no choice but to concentrate less on his pain and to focus more on making sure that his steps didn't sink his feet too deeply in the sand.

After they had gained a sort of awkward rythym to their steps, Satoshi tried to restart the conversation.

"So how's your manly pride?" he asked. His voice was light and teasing.

"Been better," replied Shigeru, shortly. He felt Satoshi's shoulders shrug in response, and he felt the warmth of Satoshi's back radiating out from his shirt, and he focused hazily toward the ever-circling stars as another spasm of pain clamped down on him.

* * *

And that was that.

After three days, Satoshi found Shigeru on accident, and that was the long and short of their conversation.

It was among the most annoying, stupid exchange of words that Satoshi had ever had with him.

It was driving him nuts.

He didn't know what it was that had made Shigeru act so tense around him. Last time he'd seen Shigeru, it had been like visiting old friends (which they were, so it made sense). Sure, it was two years earlier, but Satoshi hadn't seen most of his friends for three years, much less a mere two. He couldn't understand why things had changed so much. Because it was very clear to him that Shigeru was not his friend anymore. From the time that he'd found Shigeru collapsed in the sand, and during the entire walk back to the little community of tents and temporary buildings that wasn't even big enough to be a _town_, they'd hardly exchanged enough words to constitute conversation, and their banter had only been rare and slightly forced. He thought that Shigeru had warmed up to him since he'd become a researcher, but it was clear to him now that Shigeru was as cold as that same desert at night.

He couldn't ignore the fact that Shigeru wanted nothing to do with him anymore, and he felt like he was ten years old all over again.

But what could he do about it? The only thing he did besides sleep and eat was spend time doing cleaning and menial labor for the researchers. He was stuck in the middle of a desert until the next supply trucks came in to drop off food and water to the camp, which wouldn't be happening for at least another week.

And still, Satoshi didn't have it in him to go home.


	2. Chapter 2

**disclaimer**  
Nintendo owns Pokemon; Pokemon owns me; I own a lawyer, and he tells me that Nintendo doesn't care what I do as long as I don't own money. 

**In Ruins**

**let me humor you**  
Thank you everyone for reviewing. This chapter is going to be wonky. I don't know what that word exactly means, but I have a feeling that you'll figure it out pretty soon. There are no warnings for this chapter, unless you've been traumatized by an incident with ketchup, or you sincerely dislike pokemon; both of these are issues that you'll need to take up with your therapist, and not me. Now, for the rest of you only slightly-more-sane readers, please enjoy the second chapter of "In Ruins!"

* * *

chapter two

* * *

It was, by all practicality, lunch time when Satoshi made his way to the dinner hall. Of all the structures in the campsite, this room, was the most central, and efforts appeared to have been made to ensure the greater integrity of a clean environment. The white-canvased tent was held up by box and block columns where it wasn't held up by thick metal poles; more importantly, the actual structure rested within two similar tent structures, and allowed the tent to hang more freely on its' supports. And, although the ceiling couldn't be taller than 10 feet at best, the lighting was largely natural and gave the whole dining area a sense of being fresh and cool. 

Unortunately, Satoshi had learned that the atmosphere did little to improve the quality of the cooking. It was true that he'd been spoiled by his mother, Hanako, but he'd traveled all over the world and had rarely suffered any food more repulsive than that which was placed before him for every meal in this godforsaken mess hall. Due to the remote location of the ruins, trucks couldn't come too often with their supplies. Kenji told Satoshi that 'researchers simply had to make do with less fresh, and less interesting food'. Satoshi hadn't been able to form a response to that, but only because the food he'd just swallowed had been making attempts to resurface. 

He barely had the chance to sit down at a place setting and scratch the mess that was his hair before Kenji discovered him. 

"Good morning!" sang Kenji, dropping his breakfast tray abruptly onto the table. Pikachu, who had been sprawled across Satoshi's shoulder, nearly fell off at its surprise by the shocking noise. Satoshi stood up slowly, his face grim. 

Of course, Kenji misunderstood this, so he grabbed Satoshi's shoulder and whirled him back around. 

"Hey, Sato-chan! The table's in _this_ direction," he quipped, and shoved Satoshi down onto the plastic chair. 

Bleary-eyed, Satoshi stared into the space in front of him. 

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to escape!" Kenji laughed. 

"Pi-kaa," confirmed Pikachu. 

"There's no food," he said, distantly. It took him quite a while to come up with the thought. 

"Of course there isn't _yet_. It's a buffet line!" declared Kenji. "You know that, Sato-chan!" 

Satoshi blinked, and Kenji relented. 

"I'll let you have some of mine! And what a treat it is! Today's breakfast is... boiled sand!" Kenji exclaimed with glee. "Or, as some call them, grits, mixed with sand, to the point where the two are indistinguishable!" 

Satoshi mumbled to himself. 

"What was that? I couldn't hear you," said Kenji moving in closer to Satoshi and cupping his ear for emphasis. 

"_Grits_," Satoshi spoke as a drone. "_Gimme some grits._" 

"Pikaaa," chided Pikachu. 

Kenji laughed and slapped Satoshi on the back. 

"What appalling manners indeed, Pikachu!" he joked, and passed over a bowl of grits to Satoshi anyway. He then turned his attention to Satoshi's pokemon. 

"Here, Pikachu, you can have some 'boiled sand' grits with your ketchup," he said, and passed the condiment to the yellow rat with dramaticized graciousness. 

"I'm sure that this will be more than all your heart could possibly desire." 

Pikachu snorted at the absurdity of the statement. 

Satoshi failed to follow after that point, as he became engrossed in his own food, and only once he had completely exhausted several portions of grits, cereal, orange juice and toast, did he discover that Pikachu and Kenji's discussion had progressed into a far more serious state of affairs.

It was some sort of bizarre battle of the stomachs. His prized pokemon was competing in a ketchup-guzzling contest with Kenji and one of the cooks. It appeared that several others may have been involved at some point, but had been forced to remove their entries after being unable to consume more than three pints of sauce. There was a crowd of people shouting and laying down bets right in front of him. 

He bit into his last course, a bacon-avacado-tomato-and-turkey club sandwhich, and watched with poorly masked amusement as the chef dropped out of the competition, and quite literally passed out on the floor.

* * *

"Towel! Towel! Towel! Need a towel!" moaned Kenji, holding his stomach with desperation. 

He sat on a chair in the infirmary, looking at first glance as if he'd been involved in some sort of great and epic battle. However, the truth was somewhat less heroic. 

Kenji's hair hung limply over his hairband and over his face; his bangs were greasy and clumpy in the spots where ketchup had missed the aim of his mouth. His green shirt seemed to have faired even worse, as the Ketchup appeared to have formed a minor galaxy of saucy constellations on Kenji's chest. The trashcan in front of had, needless to say, had filled up in the past twenty minutes since Kenji had arrived in the clinic. 

Pikachu sat several feet away, staring into a corner, its tail twitching. 

Satoshi, of course, watched it all with a generous smile on his face. He also took great pleasure in his taskwork, evident from the excited way that he slapped a wet towel against the back of Kenji's neck. 

With such an attitude as this, it would be difficult for anyone to see him as anything other than an affectionate and loyal friend. 

"How's that feel?" 

"You're sick, Sato-chan!" bawled Kenji. 

"No, you're the one who's throwing up a perfectly good lunch and breakfast!" Satoshi stuck out his bottom lip. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself." 

"Pi pika CHU," agreed the electric mouse from its corner. 

Kenji gave it a baleful glare. "Oh, don't be a sore loser." 

"As opposed to a _sore_ winner?" snickered Satoshi, taking a seat next to Kenji on the stark white cot. 

Kenji opened his mouth in reply, but quickly found himself covering his hand with his mouth and leaning over the waste basket once again. 

"Gross," said Satoshi. 

"That was a terrible pun," Kenji chortled. He tossed back a glass of water and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Satoshi rolled his eyes (Kenji had no place to talk about what constituted a bad pun. He would never forget the horror on Kasumi's face when Kenji had made a joke about how often Ookido-sensei woke up with morning wood. He was pretty sure that the two of them still weren't speaking). 

"So, do you think you've gotten out the last of the ketchup?" Satoshi ventured, although the immediate result made it rather clear that his question had just been answered for him. 

"Don't say that word," Kenji said, greening around the gills. 

"Which word? Oh - you mean 'ketchup'?" 

"Yes," Kenji wheezed out the affirmation purely by his force of will. 

Satoshi cocked his eyebrow. "But what's so bad about saying 'ketchup'; it's not like saying the word will magically force more of it into your stomach or anything--" 

"-- Urk --" 

"-- Well, you're going to have to suck it up and get back to work eventually!" Satoshi began to tease in earnest. "I'm pretty sure I saw some of your crew members betting against you back there, and they lost at least 10,000 yen altogether. Wonder how they'll take to see you skiving off of work?" 

Kenji moaned and rested his forehead against the edge of the wastebin. "Feel sick..." he said. If Kenji's voice was too weak, then of course Satoshi must not have been able to hear it, so he wasn't being intentionally mean in continuing his soliloquy. 

In fact, the unintentional cruelty was only incident to his Plan. Yes, Satoshi had a Plan to put into action that required a little 'friendly baiting'. But if he was succesful, he would win his freedom! More accurately, if his Plan was succesful, Satoshi would win around a half hour of Having Something To Do. It was actually very convenient that Kenji had gotten sick from drinking too much Ketchup, because before breakfast, Satoshi was worried that he'd have to resort to doing something stupid; something of the likes that Rokketo-dan would do. Something like 'dig a hole in the hopes that Kenji would fall into it'. 

Satoshi chose not to consider that although he wasn't digging a hole for Kenji, he was making digs _at_ Kenji. 

"It's kind of hard to imagine, you getting sick and not being able to do your work because of a stupid game... I wonder what would happen if Ookido-sensei was to hear about it? He would be so disappointed in you," Satoshi dug. 

And his mining was a success - he struck solid gold! 

"_I'm doomed!_" Kenji gaped. "I must deliver the results of my project...At all costs!" 

"But Kenji-kun!" Satoshi pasted on a terrified expression. "If you go outside into that hot desert, you'll just get even more sick! All of that hot blowing air and the sticky feeling of sweat... The loud noise of pokemon digging up the ground... Why, it might be so overwhelming, you might contaminate one of the sites, and then what good would all of your data be?" 

Kenji's face became very straight at this point, and he looked at Satoshi with the most serious, and rather terrified, expression that Satoshi could remember had ever been directed at him. 

"I can't believe I'm about to say this," he said, swallowing, "But you make a very good point." 

"If only there was another way." 

"If only--" Kenji began, but was cut off by Satoshi's shout. 

"I've got it! Kenji, I'll take your data and measurements to the field site!" Satoshi declared. 

Clearly, Kenji was not thinking straight enough to remember that Satoshi spelled disaster wherever he went. He was clumsy, forgetful, brash, and occasionally had impulses of curiousity that involved the world tilting from its' very axis. If Kenji did not have blood thickened with ketchup in his veins, it would have been very likely that he would've felt a warning buzzing in the back of his mind. But as Kenji was preoccupied, Satoshi's plan seemed rather rational and worthy of approval. 

"That's a great idea, Satoshi. You know where I need you to take those, right?" 

"Directly to Shigeru, so he can tell everyone how to attack the next stage of the excavation." 

"Right! I've got it!" Satoshi posed triumphantly. "C'mon, Pikachu! Let's go! We're on a mission!' 

Pikachu perked up from its' position of pining, and was trotting at its' master's heels in no time at all. They were halfway out of the room before Satoshi froze midstep. Kenji smirked and pulled out a thick packet from the back cargo pocket in his shorts. 

"Hey Kenji-" 

"-Forgetting this?" asked Kenji, holding up a tan envelope in the arm that wasn't clutching his stomach. 

"Uh, yeah," said Satoshi, slightly shame-faced. He rubbed the back of his neck with a weak laugh, and took the research from Kenji, thanking him. 

"It's the other way around," Kenji assured him. Satoshi nodded with a very dead-set furrow of his brows, as if that alone would seal the arrangement. 

"Okay! Bye!!" he called out. "I'll _catch up_ with 'ya later!" 

It took the briefest of moments for Kenji's addled mind to register the word before it struck him with a new bout of illness and caused him to swoon. He collapsed on the bed, and curled up in a fetal position. He stayed that way for several long, troubled, moments before gritting out a recommendation for how Satoshi ought to mend a flood-prone river.

* * *

Shigeru straightened and wiped a damp clump of bangs from his forehead. The path of his gloved hand stained his skin with a smear of orange and miry clay, on top of the light brown dusting from breaking rocks. He brought his hand down, reaching for the near-empty flask of water at his side. 

"...Tired out already, Ookido-senpai?" teased an older scientist from several feet away. Shigeru snorted disdainfully at the man who was meticulously scraping between the crevice of two large rocks. 

"If you recall correctly, Tano, I've been here since 5 A.M., doing some of the work that you were not able to complete last night," Shigeru rebutted. 

Tano leaned out from between the rocks with a smirk. "I don't have much experience in the field of paleontology... or the restoration of fossils, for that matter." 

"Strange; it would seem that you don't have much ability in _any_ scientific field," drawled Shigeru. He stepped out of the direct sunlight and took a seat underneath the shadowed side of the hand-excavated trench. 

"I will not admit to being half as clever as you," Tano said in his most syrupy voice. Then, "But you _can't _be telling me that 'Frankensteining' Pokemon fossils is a legitimate field of science. It cannot be done." 

"Ah, it isn't possible? But how else were you born?!" 

"Magic," answered Tano. 

Then, he and Shigeru broke out into matching grins. 

"You old fart," said Shigeru. 

"Young idiot," said Tano.

* * *

By the time Satoshi stepped out into the blazing sun, it was the hottest part of the day. He could see the world around him waving at the edges, shaping mirages over the miles of dunes. It was a desert, after all, and he'd camped in them _loads_ during his pokemon journeys. Still, his earlier experience with deserts didn't change the fact that it took hardly a minute for him to begin sweating. It was about 110 degrees or something and... 

"Well so what if it is!" Satoshi curled his hand into a fist as his ruminations vocalized. "I'll just take off my rubber gloves and I'll feel loads better!" 

"Pikapika!" cheered Pikachu, running in front of its trainer with a bit of a frolic. 

"Besides, at least we're not still inside of there, doing dishes, cleaning laundry, and stuff! We can now be part of the real deal!" 

"Chu!" 

"Let's go, Pikachu! We've got to--" 

And Satoshi unceremoniously tripped and fell face-down into the sand.

* * *

"Shigeru! Shigeru!!" 

Researcher Tano, huddled over a scientific instrument that was buried partially in the ground, looked up to see Satoshi of Masara town coming his way. The older man didn't recognize the (very much) younger boy by his appearace, but it wasn't necessary. Tano was a scientist, yes; but, put simply, not many people had a Pikachu who followed them around wherever they went. 

So, Tano ventured a guess. 

"Ah, Satoshi, is it?" he asked. 

The boy stopped, several feet away. "Yeah, that's me, um..." 

Satoshi's fairly confused eyes darted around for a moment before settling on Tano, and by then he seemed fairly flustered. Tano noticed with interest that the boy's Pikachu seemed to have a fairly placid expression - completely unphased by its trainer's intensely expressive behavior. 

"Sorry, I thought Ookido Shigeru was supposed to be here," Satoshi apologized, respectfully. "But uh, how did you know who I was, anyway?" 

"Excuse me, I should have introduced myself. I am Yamatoshi Tano. Shigeru and I lead the research team that is currently excavating the field here - and as you may be wondering he isn't here right now as he's filling up our flasks with water. Shigeru has told me about you," replied Tano. Before the next question could get off of Satoshi's tongue, Tano added keenly, "From what I gather, you were childhood friends and several weeks ago, you came all the way from Kanto to visit Shigeru here, correct?" 

"Yeah, that's right." 

"Well, what do you think? Of our work, I mean. As a pokemon trainer, it must be a much slower, less adventurous way to spend your youth." 

Satoshi scratched his hair beneath the brim of his hat. 

"I've, uh, had to deal with waiting things out before, so it's not that bad." Satoshi shifted his weight on his feet. "Anyway... I'm getting to do something else now, to help out, rather than just doing chores. I have to find Shigeru to give him something." 

"So, you've been upgraded from housemaid to 'courier pidgey'?" 

Tano smiled to himself quietly. Shigeru had always been one to choose his entrance based on the point at which he could effect the most drama. That he chose to do so with a subtle barb didn't escape Tano's notice, either. After all - age had to count for something, didn't it? 

"Hey! Don't make fun of me!" Satoshi defended. 

"Then don't make it so easy for me to make fun of you," Shigeru leered. 

Tano cleared his throat. "Shigeru, I believe Satoshi had a purpose in seeking you out..?" 

It was clear by Shigeru's open expression that he hadn't taken the time to consider Satoshi's purpose in his visit. He let out a small 'hmm' of interest. 

"Yeah, so Kenji wanted me to give this to you," declared Satoshi. He reached into his pocket, took out a stuffed envelope and extended to Shigeru. He swiped the parcel and unsealed it quickly. Satoshi and Tano both watched his expression as it shifted from mild interest to disdainful boredom. 

"More of these? It figures." Shigeru resealed the envelope flap and let out a huff. 

"More of what?" asked Satoshi, moving forward and raising his neck to look inside the envelope. 

"The symbol pieces, I assume," said Tano from his seat. "They appear to have engravings of the Unown on them." 

Satoshi jumped slightly. "Symbol pieces...? Don't you mean, like the ones that Molly played with back in Greenfield?" 

"Yes, the same ones," Shigeru cut in, snidely. "Don't worry, _garu-boy_, we didn't overlook something that obvious. We know that Molly was somehow able to activate the Unown, but we don't know how. Unfortunately, she was too young to be able to objectively tell us what she did to make them appear... She barely remembers the incident at all. 

"We've concluded that those symbol pieces were already activated by Molly's father, when he had entered one of the newly unearthed chambers, deep underground - beneath these very ruins - six years ago. The connection between the symbol pieces and the appearance of the Unown was practically coincidental. None of thousands of combinations of symbol pieces have summoned the Unown. Thus, the contents of this envelope are irrelevant to our research." 

Shigeru turned around and began to flip through several pile of folders and stapled papers. Tano watched how behind him, Satoshi bit the inside of his cheek before blurting out his thoughts. 

"Well, Kenji told me that it was important for you to see these." 

"Did he?" asked Shigeru, raising an eyebrow. "I bet the only thing that he thought was important was getting you to leave him alone." 

Satoshi gaped, and Tano felt a flash of pity for him. He'd been on the recieving end of Shigeru's (at times, inexplicable) wrath in the past, and knew it to be fairly harsh. But he was a tough old man, and this boy, on the other hand... 

... His expression was too open for Tano not to see that Shigeru had struck too deeply. 

"So," Satoshi swallowed, "Are you saying that I came here for no reason?" 

"Pretty much," agreed Shigeru. From where Tano was sitting, he could see just the edge of Shigeru's smirk. 

"Great. _Fine_. Whatever," shot back Satoshi. "I'll see you later." 

The boy turned on his heel, called his Pokemon to him, and stalked away. Shigeru did not look up from the page he was looking at; it was from some file that Tano could confidently say was irrelevant. Tano said nothing and instead waited for Shigeru to speak in his own time. 

And - sure enough - as soon as Satoshi was surely gone, Tano watched as the tension seemed to drop out from between Shigeru's shoulders. His young researcher partner took a deep, and somewhat shaky breath as he leaned over and held his palm to his forehead. 

"Shigeru, are you... are you alright?" asked Tano. 

But Shigeru just laughed lowly - and for the first time, Tano noticed a troubled shadow that had been stirred up from the depths of Shigeru's eyes. He knew that it hadn't been there before Satoshi had arrived. 

"Don't worry about me. It's just my leg... it's acting up again."

* * *

Satoshi ran. 

He clenched his fists; his fingernails dug into his palms. He bit the inside of his lip, trying to keep back his tears. 

He ran out of the maze of excavation sites and down the wide path that cut through the rock mountain. It was such a strange picture: the dirt road had long ago seperated the ancient adobe homes that had been built into one rock face, facing the second, smaller mountain of rock that blocked the desert winds. On one end, the excavations and tents and Satoshi had little reason to stay there now, and so he ran as far as he could, because whether or not he liked it, there was nowhere further that he could go. 

Cruel thoughts spiraled through his mind. He felt the whip of wind and sand against his face and it felt more raw than usual. He lifted up his hand and felt two matching paths of tears on his cheeks.Tears? Ha - how immature - getting emotional over just a few insults. He was acting like a stupid child. No wonder Shigeru wanted nothing to do with him. 

But why now? 

Why did he have to be so cruel about it? Satoshi was so sure that they had become friends, and that they were past this animosity, but obviously he was wrong. He had been wrong in coming here - he had been wrong in approaching Shigeru in the desert, assuming that it had _just been too busy_ for Shigeru to spend time with him; he'd even been wrong in hoping that if he proved himself useful, that would make Shigeru at least look at him like he wasn't a fleck of sand that he wanted to flick away. 

There - in front of him! The edge of the bizarre mountain-canyon dropped off into the dunes. Satoshi slowed down and stopped. He could hear Pikachu behind him, calling out with worry. 

He slumped to the ground. And still, he could feel the pricks of tears at the edges of his eyes. 

At some point, Pikachu crawled into his lap and crooned at him. 

And at another, he opened the envelope and dumped all of its contents onto the ground. 

There was no one coming; nothing stopping him from letting himself go for a little while. He closed his eyes and let go. 

If he cried because he was lonely, then so what? If he cried because he missed his best friends - who had forgotten him - then so what? And if he cried because most of all, he missed Shigeru, and he couldn't even explain that, then _so what_? Maybe it was the desert; maybe it was teenage angst. But Satoshi had never felt this desolate, not even when he had spent a year refusing to go 'back outside'. 

He couldn't turn back time. Shigeru would always be too busy with researching the past, and Satoshi simply wasn't a part of that. The moment of blinding clarity and need forced Satoshi to cry out in pain; it was a terrible sound. The festering wound inside of him had burst open and it shook him to the core. 

When the shaking motions didn't stop, Satoshi cracked open his bleary eyes. 

There were the blurred shapes of black letters dancing around his field of vision. And it wasn't just him that was shaking: it was his entire world.

* * *

There was a strange sound - like a drumroll as it approached; like the rumble of thunder that loomed distantly for far too long. It caused Shigeru to stop in the middle of his note-taking and look up around him. 

His heart quailed inside of his chest. 

_"It's an earthquake!"_

The words had barely escaped his lips before Shigeru felt the second, stronger wave sweep across the earth. The It was like a ripple of air beneath a placemat; everything rose in a great lurch, and as it passed, Tano fell to the ground in a heap. 

"Tano-san! Are you alright?" 

The older man was on the ground, struggling to pull himself upright. In that moment, Shigeru would've honestly sworn that his muscles had been replaced with Jell-O, and not even from fear. 

Shigeru whipped his head around, taking in the clods of earth that were pouring down the sides of the ravine, the splintering, cracking noise of wood supports breaking, and the sudden clouds up above, swirling on all sides. 

A shout from a ravine nearby; the sound of breaking glass. 

"Tano-san!" Shigeru shakily moved forward, and as the earth pitched he fell to the ground and his bad leg began to clench up. 

"Work damn you! WORK!" He shouted as the very earth seemed to break apart around him, and grabbed his leg with both of his hands and yanked it out from underneath him. The pain ripped through his thigh and all the way to his center. He squinched his eyes shut and tried to breathe, but all that he registered were shouts of terror - there was this odd feeling in the air and Shigeru felt like time was slowing down. The air had changed, as if a very vacuum had opened - then there was this terrible ripping noise.- A strange melody seemed to play inside of his mind. Shigeru's eyes grew huge. _I'm going to die. I'm really going to die,_ he thought. At that very moment, he thought of Satoshi. 

And then the earth swallowed him up.

* * *

To Be Continued: You know what to do! 


	3. Chapter 3

**disclaimer**  
Nintendo owns Pokemon; Pokemon owns me; I own a lawyer, and he tells me that Nintendo doesn't care what I do as long as I don't own money. 

**In Ruins**

**moving half-way around the world**  
Yes, my lovely readers, I have moved from good ol' Texas to Tokyo, Japan! I write this to you from my dormitory room in Tokyo, where I'll be spending the next four years of my college life. Because of this, you understand, I cannot give to you as long of a chapter as I would like to give you. The past three weeks have been a madness of family issues, my summer job, and packing/moving/saying goodbyes, and then the endless rigamaroo of orientation and exhaustion of speaking a foreign language with fretful regularity. However, I am by no means going on hiatus! I will continue to update with as much consistency as I can. Consider the length of this chapter a mere blip for which I profusely apologize. At least it's here and it's got plot, ne? Now, without further ado...

* * *

chapter three  
**land slide**

* * *

Fear - The roar of the earth splitting, and screams; the crumbling dirt around him, spilling over him and burying him alive. 

Silence - a thick blanket of it, that wrapped around him and even swallowed up his heartbeat, and his gasp as he realized that the mounds of soil that encompassed him were crushing him from the inside out. 

Fear and silence - crushing him, smaller than himself. And who was he, anyway - and what was he - when he was vaguely aware that all of himself was just a speck the size of sand - and _Is this what death feels like?_ - and then he vanished. And it was black. Or was it white? It could've been. It could've been any color, or every color, for all that he knew; for he knew nothing. And it was the absence of color and the absence of even time itself. 

Forever - an empty void without meaning. No sound, no feeling, not even sorrow; not even hope. A bleak resignation that simply _was_: He was nothing and it was nothing. 

_Forever._

And then it changed.

* * *

It was like being born. 

It was like brine in his eyes on his first trip to the beach. It was like building a sandcastle with Satoshi. 

It was the feeling of something moving against his face, something that was intangible... and that meant that _he_ was tangible. And this thing that was touching him so lightly was familiar. It was the smell of the blossoms that grew at his parents' home. He remembered it. 

That! That was it -- memory! These were his memories -- and he -- he was real! 

It was this realization that startled him to pay attention to his ears. He could hear the sound of distant waves. And that familiar touch was the wind that came off of the sea. The prickling sensation came from the sand. And he sensed it all because he had skin, and mass, and even smell. 

He felt his face - and only then did he realize that yes, he could feel, and no, he wasn't blind, but he had been clenching his eyes shut. 

So he opened his eyes. And there was color. 

Blue - Such a vast sky! It was higher above him than he'd ever thought it could be. And this warmth spreading on his right cheekbone; it was the sun, on the side of his face. 

He felt something warm bubbling up inside his throat, and for once, he let out a rich noise. Salt licked at the edges of eyes. It stung, and it was _wonderful_. He'd never known what life was before. He'd never known what a gift it was to feel. What had kept him from realizing this, years ago? Why had he shuttered his eyes and acted like he didn't care? 

And that was it. 

_This_ was not 'years ago'. This was not even 'seconds ago', this was not even 'his life'. 

Shigeru returned to himself completely in that moment. He still felt the sand in his hair and he could feel the fabric of his clothes clinging to him as he laid on his back. The hysteria suddenly absented. Shigeru forced himself upright and stared ahead -- Stunned. 

He was on a beach. 

The surf was at low tide, and he was laying in the sand, when he _should_ have been dead, or in the infirmary, at least, after the earthquake that ripped through the ruins of Alph, destroying it forever. 

Instead, he was on a seashore, taking in the waves of water rather than a vast sea of sand. 

Behind him, he could hear a zephyr sweep over flowers - he scented it as the wind passed him, and found himself overwhelmed with the pungent aroma of hibiscus. Shigeru grew into the awareness that, from the corner of his eye, a field of red flowers were in bloom. 

Yes - he _was_ alive. He could tell as much from the fact that his heart was panicking inside of his chest. Still - this wasn't right. He wasn't supposed to be here and he wasn't supposed to be here _like this_. It was better than death, true... Even so, he would've been a fool for it to not have dawned on him that, suddenly, maybe 'life' was not the same as it had been before.

* * *

If Satoshi had wanted to escape, it was already too late; his legs were nothing but loose jelly and his eyes could not focus on a single thing that didn't spin out of his field of vision. His arms trembled as he reached around him for a hand-hold - but it seemed that the world was eroding all around him. 

He began to shout, but in the howling, breaking noise, he couldn't even hear himself. 

The roar of it was so loud - he covered his ears with his hands - and the world was practically silent, so enveloped with the sound! The wind was too strong - he had to close his eyes to keep them from being scraped with flying sand! 

There'd been no time to think before it was gone altogether. He had either lost consciousness, or the conscious world had lost _him_. Either way it ended up the same: with Satoshi flat on his back, covered with a wiry-wool blanket, and a cold compress administered to his forehead. 

He stirred at this; he had a pounding headache and couldn't see a thing in the disorienting darkness. But through it, he heard a soothing voice singing softly to him. Satoshi let himself breathe out, and he rested. Somehow he just _knew_ that he was safe. 

...Haruka's voice always made him feel that way.

* * *

When Satoshi found consciousness again, Haruka was no longer singing. Even so, he could still sense her at his side, and he could still hear the echoes of her voice, as if it alone had healed him. And maybe it had; he knew that songs were powerful. He'd learned that lesson years ago, when Pupurin sang its song and made him forget that anything mattered but the peace inside of sleep. When the Orange Islands unleashed their ancient bird pokemon from the depths, he couldn't help but learn that there was a song in the currents of the tide and possibly in life itself. And when Haruka sang to Jirachi, it had made him feel... happy. 

It had been years since he'd heard her voice. She'd been traveling, she'd been with her brother, settling down in a new life; and _now,_ as if out of nowhere, it was all that he could hear - a melody in the midst of a landslide. 

She was here. Singing to him. And there was a cool compress on his forehead; a balm that tingled his arms. 

He wondered if the damage had been worse than even he could've known. If Haruka was here, it meant she must have been told about his condition. And his condition; what was that? It took so long to get to the Ruins of Alph - he must've been sleeping for days. Maybe, weeks. And what if he had been in a coma, nearly dead? He could tell from her song that she was worried, and a pressure of guilt built up between his eyes. 

He lifted his eyelids and the light flooded in. 

The first thing he saw were a welcome pair of warm and worried eyes. 

"...Haruka?" he questioned. His voice was raspy but he pushed it anyway. "You're...here." 

It took several moments before Haruka responded. And even then she only said, 'Yes. I am'. 

Satoshi stirred further. "...What's going on?" 

"That's what I'd like to know," Haruka replied. 

A cup of warm tea was pushed against his lips, and he accepted. There was something bothering him, but he couldn't place it yet - he was still too lost in sleep. 

"What do you mean?" Satoshi asked. 

"I'd like to know how you got here." 

Satoshi swallowed the last of his tea and Haruka took it from him. 

"There was an earthquake," began Satoshi, and just the word on his tongue released an after-shock of emotion. "I was - I was trying to ask you what happened, if I was... hurt. That's why I'm here, right? Something happened, and I wasn't... and the Ruins... Where is Pikachu? Shigeru... where's Shigeru!? Is he okay?" 

Haruka didn't reply. 

"Didn't you just hear me? Did something happen to... Shigeru isn't..._ He's okay, right_?" 

"I'm sure he's fine," said Haruka placidly. "But are you all right?" 

Satoshi looked at her - really looked at her. 

_Wouldn't she be the one to know the answer to that?_

And then he saw it: her hair was held up in golden clasps. 

It was such a bizarre change from her typical adornment that he found himself wondering if her entire wardrobe had changed since he saw her last, and so he looked. He opened his eyes and his jaw dropped as well. 

"Are you all right?" Haruka repeated, worriedly leaning towards him. 

"No - I'm not!" he said, the words coming out shakily, "What are you - why are you -?" 

He tore himself away from her worried face and looked at the opposite wall of white granite stones, held together without mortar or cement or anything at all. In the center of the wall hung several leather items from a hook, things he'd seen only once before, but never understood. He shifted his gaze further to the left and to an open window, or rather, a hole in the lay of the rocks. And through it, Satoshi saw everything. 

And he saw a dead city sprawled before him -- alive. 

He took in all of it, as well as he could. White granite stones piled and terraced into steps and courtyards and homes. Through the openings in the walls, people were moving around in the simple routines of their lives. Laughter -- the slapping of sandals on stone -- the smell of exotic spices, a kitchen fire, and the gentle rolling of a stone crushing grain. 

Haruka rested a hand on his back and leaned in to support him. Only then did Satoshi realize how heavily he was breathing, and he was amazed that he was breathing at all. 

"Do you understand me?" she asked, her voice lilting at the end. A piece of her hair slid over her shoulder and fell across her tunic. 

Satoshi shook his head quickly, only realizing too late that it only made the world swirl even faster around him. Who was this Haruka who sat beside him? And what had happened to bring her - or him - to this place? 

"Where am I?" Satoshi asked. "Haruka, where are we? What's going on!?" 

_"Haruka!"_

Both Satoshi and Haruka turned their heads to the doorframe, where a black haired boy in tan colored linens had appeared. Several people outside had slowed down to unsubtly look in on the commotion. Satoshi ignored them; he was too surprised at seeing yet another familiar face. 

"Masato!" he exclaimed. 

"Masato," echoed Haruka, shooting Satoshi an unreadable look, then returning her gaze to her brother. "What is it?" 

"There's another one. He's down by the ocean!" 

"Another _what_?" asked Satoshi immediately. Haruka ignored the comment and surveyed him quickly. 

"You look like you'll be alright," she addressed him, and rose to her feet. "I'll be right back." 

Satoshi looked around the strange room and peeled back the linen covering him. 

"No - Don't leave yet !" he cried out, and propped himself up. Haruka looked at him speculatively. 

"Do you need something?" she asked. 

Masato stomped his foot impatiently. "Ha-ru-ka! Come on!" 

"Oh, shut up, brother. I'll meet you at the Perch in a moment." 

"Fine," huffed Masato, and ran off, allowing Haruka to turn her attentions to her patient once more. 

Satoshi worked his jaw. 

"I don't - I don't know what's going on," he said honestly. "But I don't want to be alone. So, whatever's happening... I'd rather go with you." 

"Then hurry up," she told him. "You might be useful to us, anyway." 

Satoshi brought his knees up and adjusted to his limbs, feelings as if he were using them for the very first time. 

A prickle of sweat had broken out on his arms. He didn't know what he was getting into, and although it wasn't anything new for him - that was practically the story of his entire life - this was different. This was something he'd never dealt with before. 

Still, it wasn't fear that made him anxious. He was... scared, yes, but in a good way. He was... _excited_. 

He'd wanted so much to feel alive again. It was bizarre that, somehow, he was standing in ruins and its life was lending to his own.

* * *

An abandoned pokegear lay faceup in the sand; the shattered screen blinked between a giant '?' and a background of grey lines. Several feet away, Ookido Shigeru paced, running his fingers through his hair, cursing, and muttering to himself angrily, "Earthquake... Dead... Beach," over and over again. 

It was a list that made no sense. And he was a _researcher_. 

He was a scientist; he was in the forefront of his field. He had been part of a team that discovered a way to regenerate pokemon fossils when he had only been 13 years old. Five years later, he was leading a team through the most dangerous ruins in the known world, with aims to unravel an even greater mystery: how ancient pokemon harnessed their power. 

It led back to the Unown, an extinct pokemon with limited evidence of any existence at all. That was over a year ago, but he wasn't one to be overwhelmed by the immensity of his task; after all, challenges were his forte. It was as though he'd been born with the cruel destiny of a difficult life. He had been orphaned at four and he could never live up to his famous, distant grandfather; to make matters worse he was gay, he had lost his best friend, and when he was fourteen he had been-- 

_NO. He would not think of that, now. Not ever._

"It's not like it even matters anymore!" he interrupted himself. All he could see was the sea and flowers and a giant rock face that towered up some three thousand feet into direct sunlight. Even when he shaded his eyes, he could barely make out the edges of the mountain; it was enough to tell that there was no practical way to get _there_ from _here_. 

Shigeru sighed, and wiped the sweat that had been building on his forehead. A stray thought tickled at him, the voice sounding like it was Satoshi's. 

_"Whaaat? You're not giving up _that easy_, right?!"_

Shigeru's lips quirked into a smile. 

It was a brash and stupid thing to do; not in his nature at all. But he didn't have anything better to do than to wander around and try to find a way out of this mess - even if that meant to climb a mountain.

* * *

Satoshi didn't expect to find himself panting to keep up with Haruka and Masato. But, then, he hadn't expected to find himself in a suddenly, real-to-life historical village that had previously been a desert ruin, that he had most recently seen crumbling beneath a massive earthquake. Satoshi struggled to keep up without even breaking anything more than a brisk pace. Haruka and Masato wound around the busy streets, of marketpeople and children and all sorts, with ease; Satoshi, less so. 

"Where are we going?" Satoshi wondered aloud, after several minutes of fleet-footedly following them down sloping terraces and winding stairs. "Haruka? Masato?" 

Haruka slowed down just long enough for Satoshi to catch up to her side. 

"Do you see the edge of the city?" asked Haruka, gesticulating before her. Satoshi nodded; several courtyards gave way to a rocky ledge where green tufts of grass spilled into the air. "You don't have a fear of heights, do you?" 

Satoshi cast a confused glance at her. "We're not jumping off of there, are we?" 

"Actually, there's a kind of narrow path carved into the side of the mountain." 

"All the way down?" asked Satoshi. "You mean we'll have to climb back up afterwards?" 

"You might have to, but I won't," cut in Masato, haughty. 

"What do you mean!? I thought you weren't going to leave me!" Satoshi faltered, and Haruka laughed into her hand. 

"Masato, don't tease him! He doesn't know -" 

"Know what?" Satoshi had to turn sharply to side-step a heavy-laden berry vendor. "_Know what?!_" 

Haruka and Masato paused in the middle of the street. Haruka in particular gave him an appraising look. "Well, you _do_ know what pokemon are, _right_?" 

"Of course!" Satoshi spluttered, "I'm the Champion after all!" 

"Champion...?" queried Masato. 

Satoshi had the grace to look sheepish. After all, it really didn't seem like the right time to brag about something unheard of, wherever they were. 

"You see, here at Alph, many flying pokemon live on the side of the mountain, at a place we call the Perch. I have a relationship with a flying pokemon who lives there. She lets me and Masato ride her, so I can come and go from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain with no problem." 

"Okay, I get it," Satoshi nodded several times. "So do you have another pokemon that I can ride, too?" 

Masato interrupted with a loud groan and began walking again. "You have to _prove_ yourself to the pokemon if you want to ride it." 

"Well then, how am I supposed to do that?" asked Satoshi, following doggedly. 

"It's different for every pokemon. Altaria always like Haruka because she can sing with them." 

"I can't sing," Satoshi pointed out, blunt as ever. "So, I guess I can't ride an Altaria, huh?" 

"Look, that's not the point," Masato sighed loudly. 

Haruka placed a hand on Satoshi's arm, and interrupted gently. "What Masato-chan means to say is, that once a bird has chosen a rider, it's not going to accept any other. There aren't exactly many at the Perch who you might be able to ride because of it." 

"So you can't just tell your pokemon to help someone else? Oh great," muttered Satoshi, putting his arms behind his head. He looked up at the blazing sun and grimaced. 

It figured, really. Just when he'd be getting bored with life... Something like _this_ would happen. And really, what could he do but take it in stride? He couldn't leave himself to think on things too long, or else it would catch up with him - that's what had happened last time, resulting in his rather infamous breakdown. 

Maybe 'carpe diem' wasn't the best way to live, but it was _practical_, even though no one would apply that term to him. 

Satoshi folded his arms behind his head, and grimaced as he looked up at the blazing sun. 

On the side of a mountain, two thouand feet below, Shigeru Ookido did the same. 


	4. Chapter 4

**writer's note, 'I do scientific research, too.'**  
For all of you guys who enjoy a good mystery, what's more mysterious than the Unown ruins? (No pun intended... okay, yes, it was totally intentional, and I have no shame). I'm one of those authoresses who researches for hours prior to writing any of my work. I feel it's the only way to have a true feeling for the characters and their situations. However, I've found myself in a 'toughie' concerning just where the Ruins of Alph are, and what they really look like. In the Pokemon Movie 3, Spencer Hale is abducted by unown in a mysterious set of ruins, that I personally believe to be based off of Macchu Picchu, the famous Incan ruins in Peru; the main difference between them is that the Unown ruins are set in the middle of a vast, Arabesque desert of violent sand dunes. The actual location where Prof. Hale had been researching is not disclosed, but was generally assumed to be the Ruins of Alph -- that is, until the Johto episode of "Fossil Fools!" in which the ruins of Alph appears to be in a set of mountainous canyons. The ruins themselves seem to take after, I would say, the Mayan Ruins of Tulum. Further reason to believe that it's based of off the ruins of Tulum is due to the "Ruins of Alph Sweepstakes" that Nintendo put on in 2001, with the release of Pokemon Crystal. The winner of the sweepstakes won a trip to the Mayan ruins of Tulum - but now, here's the frustrating part - around one thousand other winners got a copy of the 3rd Pokemon Movie, in which we see a set of ruins that clearly is not the same Ruins of Alph seen in the series. One would assume that these two locations aren't the same. But... Why would there be multiple Unown ruins shown in the same Pokemon arc? Like the Unown themselves, I don't think we're supposed to have all of our questions answered... So for _my purposes_, I have decided that both of the images we've seen are actually the Ruins of Alph. Since we know that there are caves and chambers underneath it, my deduction is that there are several entrances to the ruins, seperated from each other by the desert. And we'll learn more about that very same desert as the plot thickens in _In Ruins_!

I'd love to hear your opinions on the topic discussed in my freaking huge paragraph. Oh, and reviews -- You know that those are going to be well recieved! And, as always, I'll be quick to reply to your questions and your comments. That's it for now. Thanks for reading! Now -- enjoy!

* * *

**chapter four**

* * *

Satoshi didn't know what he'd been expecting, but he couldn't hide his surprise upon entering the bird pokemon sanctuary. At the end of a steep path, a natural rock platform of sorts gave just enough space for the rock and thatch building. On the exterior, it looked both the same and unsame from the ones in the city above, albeit without windows. Curiously, this building had a weather-beaten wooden door inside of the doorframe. Satoshi was reminded of visiting a farm as a child. This 'Perch' looked like a glorified Pidgey-hut. 

"Is this really it?" asked Satoshi flatly.

Masato scowled at him and swung the door open.

A change came over Satoshi's features immediately. "Wow!" he exclaimed.

This place wasn't much to look out on the outside, that was true; while the city had small, thin windows interspersed, the exterior of this place had no windows at all. But once Masato opened the door, it was apparent that, besides the wall separating the human village from the pokemon sanctuary, the building had no walls at all. Instead, open windows stretched like canvas between the stone corner-supports and wooden support beams, and at the edges of the room and through the 'windows', the ground gave way to a sharp descent of empty air - presumably for some hundreds of feet, Satoshi guesed, because he could see the ocean stretching into the horizon far beyond and below them. The roof was predictably made of thick dried hay, tied down with rope on the vaulted ceiling. And although the floor was dirt, Satoshi definitely let the thought cross his mind that the bird pokemon here were enjoying a better lifestyle than some of the villagers in the city.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" asked Haruka from beside him. Satoshi turned and nodded at her.

"I didn't expect it," he admitted.

"Hey! You two!" Masato interrupted from across the room. He was unfolding something encased in a few folds of old leather. "Haruka, I'm going to call Altaria. Can you see if _that guy_ can go back on his own? I don't see any other pokemon here."

Satoshi only then realized consciously that Masato was right: although there were plenty of nests, most appearing to be recently in use, there weren't any bird pokemon in sight. He then frowned as he went over Masato's words. _'That guy'?!_

"I have a name, you know," Satoshi pointed out, folding his arms. Masato barely glanced at him from the leather encasing and the knots that he was meticulously untying.

"I'll ask you about that when I care, all right? So don't get your hopes up."

Haruka let out a huff and Satoshi immediately recognized her to be livid.

"Masato!" Haruka stormed across the room, the hems of her off-white tunic dragging behind her feet. "Will you try to be less obstinate-"

As soon as she stood in front of them, both of the siblings' voices dropped to a loud whisper (or perhaps, that of a dull roar) with words that Satoshi couldn't make out. He couldn't miss, however, several over-exaggerated hand motions and the very shrill noise that came from a decorative bone-flute.

"What's that?" asked Satoshi, moving towards the pair for a better look.

"It's how we call Altaria," explained Haruka, replacing the flute inside of the leather. "If you're very lucky, maybe another bird pokemon will come as well. Otherwise, I don't think you can come with us to see the-"

"Well, what's wrong with that one in the corner?" Satoshi pointed. Both Haruka and Masato shared a glance before letting out a shared sigh.

"His disposition is not very friendly," said Haruka.

"He's possessed" said Masato.

Satoshi squinted at the bird sitting haughtily in the corner. "Well, what is he here for then?"

"He supposedly _wants_ to let someone ride him," Masato explained, "...Eventually. He's been flying in here sporadically for almost two years and roosts in that corner. "

It was like all those years ago - the way the blood suddenly rushed through his veins. Satoshi didn't even pause a moment to think over why he was doing what he was doing; all that mattered was getting across the room. He'd never met a pokemon that he couldn't train - eventually - so was it really surprising that he stepped forward, and let his nostrils fill with the scent of flight?

Of course, this Haruka and this Masato didn't know him; they didn't understand that their shouts of dismay would only propel him further. Satoshi wasn't one to back down to such a direct challenge.

The Staraptor, no longer a huddled shadow in the corner, gave him an appraising stare, its eyes sharp and its' feathers poised. It was _huge_; the biggest one he'd ever seen.

Satoshi wasn't scared. Really, that was the _last_ thing he had on his mind. Somehow, he couldn't explain it - he felt heady with euphoria. He didn't have to think twice about approaching the Staraptor and placing his hand on the side of its' massive neck. He couldn't have really thought if he'd wanted to. He just looked at the powerfl bird pokemon firmly in the eyes, his brown meeting yellow.

"I'd like to ride you," he'd said. "That's okay, right?"

And then, it was decided - just like that.

* * *

Shigeru liked to think of himself as rugged, adventurous, and strong. But the truth was that he hadn't been able to scramble up more than 50 feet of sheet rock before he found that the rocky platform - which he'd seen from below - definitely did _not_ lead to a mountain path. What it did lead him to, however, was the frustrating conclusion that he couldn't climb up any further. He scuffed the toe of his shoe on the dusty ground, snarling under his breath. What the hell kind of a day was this? And really, didn't he deserve a break? 

Leaning back on the rock wall, he swiped his brow with the back of his hand. It was just as hot as ever, but there were only weak shadows. What time did that make it...?

He looked up at the sun, squinting, as white stars popped around the edges of his vision.

And he saw something moving about in the sky, circling and growing larger. A bird pokemon - that's what it was - in fact, he could make out a second one, albeit it was more distant, and didn't seem to be approaching with the same reckless speed.

Whatever it was -- he didn't know what to think. The anticipation grew and he felt his heart choking his breath inside of his chest. It was a pokemon, and some sort of incredibly large one, too. And if he didn't know better, it was carrying something on its' back. Satoshi furrowed his brow. Was it using the _Fly_ technique? And anyway, who would be on it? And who would want to spurn his pokemon on towards him? Because there was no question, the pokemon was approaching _him_. And on the pokemon, he could almost make out a face - features, besides black hair - like wild eyes and an outfit familiar. He felt the wall press against his back more firmly.

And suddenly, Shigeru found the creature was flapping its' wings in the air not three meters away from him. Fuzzy static traveled across his chest as he determined the identity of the rider. It was the person he wanted to see more than anything else, and wanted to admit to it less than anything else. But now wasn't the time for that; he was rejoicing.

It was heaven and hell in a pair of bright brown eyes.

"Satoshi!" he cried out. He was saved and didn't that sound pathetic?

"C'mon, Shigeru," laughed the boy, reaching out his hand. "There's room for one more."

_It's not so bad anymore._ That's all he could think as he stretched out his hand and felt the calluses of Satoshi's smaller grip. He looked up at Satoshi's trusting smile, and felt it echoed in his own.

_He wasn't alone anymore._

He didn't know where he was or why he had gotten here, but there was Satoshi's hand.

Shigeru took it and let Satoshi lead him on.

* * *

They sat inside the same room where Satoshi had woken up. It appeared to be Haruka and Masato's living room, for all function. The mat that Satoshi had slept on was rolled up and stored on a hook on the wall. A roughly-hewn pot filled with water and crushed spices - a crude tea - sat upon the central fire, and the two boys sat satellite to it. Their hosts' cushions laid empty beside them; several apparently influential people had taken much of their attention since Shigeru and Satoshi had reunited and returned to the village on Staraptor's back. 

They were left to tell their stories to each other, as much as they could.

"It doesn't answer anything," Shigeru managed at last. "Why was I on a beach, for example? Have you seen a beach anywhere near the Ruins of Alph? But this place- this place is obviously the same, just, _lived in_. I _know_ every single house, every room. I had to - it was part of my job of leading the research team."

"I don't remember it looking like this," Satoshi pointed out.

"Well, it wouldn't. There were some places where only the foundations were left of buildings, so you couldn't actually _see_ that they had existed unless you did a dig and analyzed the ground, and..."

Shigeru trailed off, obviously figuring that Satoshi didn't have the capacity to understand. When Satoshi folded his hands behind his head, it rather confirmed his assumption. "It was just a question. Sorry."

"You just really don't know anything," Shigeru whined.

"Look, I'm _sorry_, I just woke up here, okay?"

"But it's impossible," he contested. After a heavy sigh, he adopted the universal pensive pose that all researchers seemed to have, with his thumb beneath his chin and narrowed, hazy eyes. Satoshi stared, fascinated; he didn't often see Shigeru like this. Usually, when he saw Shigeru, there were sparks of anger or something unfathomable and equally dark. But this wasn't emotion; ths was just thought. And it was mezmorising, and Shigeru continued to speak with half-awareness.

"There was just an earthquake. Earthquakes are caused by faults and rifts in the earth. Physical, but not multi-dimensional. So the earthquake itself couldn't have transported us - was it a symptom? And if it did, in fact, transport us, then, it wasn't merely horizontal - so where? Is this a new dimension?! Is it the past? There's nothing that can do that... and even if there was, it just wouldn't happen on its' _own_ Something happened! Something was changed! Some one - did - something!"

Satoshi took a moment to recover, and reconnect to his vision, and realize that Shigeru was now staring directly at him. He squirmed under the intensity of the gaze.

"You," Shigeru spoke with all the malice of a beast circling its prey. "Did you do something?"

"NO!" Satoshi threw down his teacup. "I told you, I was minding my own business!"

Shigeru folded his legs as he considered. "You're always wrapped up in these things, so..."

"Yeah, but I don't lie! I told you everything that happened!"

Shigeru raised his eyebrow as if he were considering this.

"I'm not a liar!" Satoshi repeated, and bit down at the bottom of his lip as he scowled.

"Then why do I feel like there's something you're not telling me?"

Satoshi flushed and wondered if his eyes were still red from crying, only hours ago, though it felt like a completely different lifetime. He wondered if it was.

"Look, even if there was something I wasn't telling you, _and_ I'm not saying that there is, I wasn't touching anything! I wasn't battling my pokemon or looking around in the ruins! I was just sitting _alone_ on the edge of a freaking dusty mountain!"

"Well excuse me if I don't believe you!" Shigeru sneered.

"Well it's not my fault, you stupid jerk!"

"It might as well be, you brat!" Shigeru shouted. "You weren't even supposed to be at the ruins! You should've been home! But no, you had to go find an adventure! I hope you're happy, Satoshi!"

Satoshi scrambled to his feet, trying not to remember the elation he had felt when he'd gotten on Staraptor's back.

"How can you expect me to be happy when I don't even know where I am, and I'm stuck with someone who I thought was my friend but obviously _hates_ me?!"

"Is that what you think?" Shigeru pulled himself up and leaned forward onto the table. "You think I could be friends with someone as immature and stupid as you!?"

Satoshi's hands curled into fists. "I'm _not_ being _immature_!"

"Then why are you being so reckless, Satoshi? You jump on some random pokemon's back to go looking around for some person who _could_ have been responsible for getting you in this mess, and wanted to hurt you! And how were you going to protect yourself? Or what if that pokemon wasn't trustworthy - and before you say it, Satoshi, there _are_ such a thing as genuinely bad pokemon, even if you haven't met them - just like genuinely bad people. And what were you thinking, just trusting two people because they _looked like people you knew_? That could kill you, Satoshi. Do you not care about your life? Do you want to die? Is that it? Or -"

"It's not like that!" Satoshi protested. "You don't even know what you're talking about!"

Shigeru smirked, the word 'victory' not even needing to be spoken, because Satoshi knew, and all that he could do was run, run out of the room, run out into the cooling, open air, where he could feel the wind whip against the tears that had swollen at the edge of his eyes, which were still raw from earlier, after all.

* * *

Haruka found him only a couple of roads away, along a side-street from the fountain and quieter because of it. There were long shadows and he sat on a stoop with his head in his hands. Her eyes softened as she approached him, her previous worry over where he was becoming replaced with a worry about _how_ he was. And then she spoke as if to tell him the exact thing she really wanted to tell herself. 

"Don't worry about him," Haruka murmured, touching Satoshi on the shoulder lightly. "Somehow, I think he's just dealing with it different than you are. He doesn't know who to blame about the situation that he's in. He's frightened, not angry, and he's probably embarassed to admit it."

"So what," Satoshi grumbled. " 'doesn't explain why he has to blame me."

"No, it doesn't," Haruka agreed. "But you need to go and talk to him. Even if he's upset, aren't you both important to each other?"

Satoshi scowled, so Haruka delicately tried to redirect that last question. "After all, now that you're here, all you have is each other..?"

If anything, his frown deepened, and Haruka felt despondent beyond all words at her obvious failure. She rubbed her arm casually, trying to come up with an idea of something to say, when Satoshi began to speak.

"Yeah, well you don't understand. _He_-" Satoshi said 'he' as if it were some euphemism for a criminal, "- doesn't even like me. _He_ would rather anyone be here but me."

_Aha._ Inferiority issues, at least, she knew how to deal with. Wherever this person came from, he was just as human as she was. Haruka sighed with both relief and empathy as she moved softly from Satoshi's front and sat down beside him, sweeping the white of her tunic beneath her legs.

"Satoshi... do you truly believe that?" she asked. "Do you think that _anyone_ is better?"

"Well," Satoshi twisted up his nose, "I _am_ better than Team Rocket..." He realized Haruka's blank, uncomprehensive stare, and flushed slightly. "They're a gang of thieves," he supplied, and dropped his head again. From the edge of his eye, he could see Haruka's lips tug at the edges, unable to keep back the pity, though he didn't recognize the slight amusement at Satoshi's naivette: one moment, and Satoshi was talking about his friend as if he were a criminal, and then saying that he esteemed himself better than criminals, and yet all the while feeling inferior to his friend. She pondered these things.

Haruka's silence made Satoshi uncomfortable, so he looked out at the twilight rushing across the stone city, and lost himself in the motions of a life lived as if the world was normal. The pace of the city rose and fell with breaks and pauses and held notes like the end of a song. The vermillion, the tans, the salt of the walls lost the edges of sunlight and slipped into a field of grey. He exhaled carefully and let his feelings do the same.

Haruka spoke.

"Though I really don't know about it, I think there might be something else."

Satoshi turned back to her. "...Yeah?"

"If your friend barely liked you more than a group of thieves, I don't think he'd get so mad at you as he did today," she said, slowly. "You can only get hurt by someone who you trust or care about. A person who doesn't think you matter won't go to the effort to hurt you. And you can't get disappointed in a person who you don't think could have done better. Whether or not he likes you at the moment, your friend obviously thinks that you matter..."

Satoshi blinked and looked Haruka's face more clearly. Her brow was knitted somewhat and her gaze was sincere and imploring.

And it did just what it had always done: it rushed his heart out of his chest.

"Shigeru and I used to be best friends when we were little and, uh, not just normal friends, but better, somehow. We did everything together, right? Up until the age ten and he was twelve, and just like _that_ he started to hate me for no reason, always angry at me and pushing me away. He would go out of his way to make me mad and prove how much better he was than me. A couple of years later, he got over it -- just long enough for us to become kind-of friends again. I was so excited. But..."

He had to take a deep breath.

"But something happened. I don't know what it was, but he ended up in the hospital. And ever since then, he has hated me just like before. And it's really bad this time. It's not a childish hate. It's a real one. He really hates me. He knows every single thing that can hurt me most and he attacks them, mercilessly. Whenever he's around me he gets so angry. But it doesn't matter, 'cuz, I've never been able to hate him back, you know? He's... he's still my best friend.

"He was kind of right," admitted Satoshi, slowly. "When he was talking to me today in your house. Not about all of it, because I really don't know why I'm here, I was just minding my own business _for once_. But he was right that I thought that this - getting thrown into your world - was kind of exciting." _Scary,_ his mind added. "... But that doesn't mean I wanted it to happen."

"Maybe it needed to happen," said Haruka.

And that was exactly what he wanted to tell Shigeru, but couldn't find the words.

Instead, he just stared at his feet and kicked the dust of the door frame and said, "I'm sorry," and waited for the dam to burst.


	5. Chapter 5

Merry Christmas to everyone! Shigeru took a few turns on me during this chapter. I know you all are starting to hate him, but don't give up on him just yet! Some of this chapter will hint to a major plot point about why he's become such a jerk. I'm very, very interested in seeing what you think.

* * *

**chapter five**

* * *

"Seriously, is that all you have to say? You're just... _sorry_?"

Satoshi's eyes had come up from the floor, hesitantly scouring Shigeru's expression before stealing away to the corner of the room. The fire and the shadow cast his shadow long and with double-edges.

"Yeah... You were right about some stuff. I probably need to be more careful," Satoshi spoke just barely above a mumble. "And I was being sort of stupid, I guess..."

He waited for Satoshi to go on with his excuses and with apologies, but instead, Shigeru watched him move forward and take his seat on the cushion that sat opposite him around the fire pit. Having done so, Satoshi ventured his eyes up from beneath the brim of his hat and his shaggy bangs, and looked at Shigeru in earnest. Being Satoshi, it was the most incredibly _open_ expression of penitence that Shigeru had ever seen. It made him even feel sorry for making Satoshi want to be sorry. It was - it was bizarre. It was disturbing, it was so much so that Shigeru, for a split second, thought of giving in. Then he leaned away from the wall and in towards Satoshi, in a practiced way that he knew looked just as aloof as it did intimidating.

"Well, it's good to know that we both agree that you're stupid" Shigeru pointed a finger at Satoshi with a denigrating smirk. "But since you - unfortunately - didn't manage to kill yourself off yet, it looks like you're in for a lot of fun tomorrow."

"Huh? Why, what's going on?"

Satoshi's expression changed completely as he uttered his response. Any tension that had existed from his apology was wiped away as easily as if it were dust. Shigeru tried not to let himself look amazed at how anyone could simultaneously be both so sincere and so forgetful.

_'Just because I'm talking to you doesn't mean I like you, now. Idiot.'_

"After you ran off like a little girl, Haruka and Masato came in to ask us how we felt about meeting with the village leaders tomorrow morning. It seems that everyone in Alph is dying to know who we are and what we're doing here."

Satoshi sharply twisted around to glance at the door (_'The instinct of a world-famous, paparrazzi'd pokemon champion?'_ Shigeru mused). In the center of the doorframe, however, an unrolled woven blanket hung as if it could care less for its' change of occupants. Quite suitably, there were no leering faces of villagers peeking through the cracks of light left open.

"But, Shigeru-"

"In case you're wondering," Shigeru waved off Satoshi's simultaneous incredulity and anxiety. "You _shouldn't_ see the entire town peeking in on us right outside the door."

"But," Satoshi repeated, stubborn, "but wouldn't that make sense? Us being here is really unusual, right? Why wouldn't people want to see us?"

"It's because the village leaders are keeping them away for now," Shigeru explained, surprising himself with the patience in his own voice. "After you appeared outside with Haruka this afternoon, and went with Masato and Haruka to the Perch, it was obvious to the Elders that the town had received at least one visitor from 'Outside'."

"From 'Outside'?" asked Satoshi. "What does that mean?"

"Someone who's not from the Village is called an 'Outsider' here. They don't seem to get new blood into Alph very often. I bet they haven't even seen people who aren't from this community for over a hundred years, from the way they're talking about us. But I had always assumed... We had all assumed... that they weren't so self-contained..." Shigeru paused, and his irises moved to the corner of his eye, as he looked at something out of sight. "For example... Why _don't_ 'outside' people come to Alph? Wouldn't it be easier to travel over sea than over a desert? And if there's no cultural exchange, especially trade, how does Alph get all of its' food? We'd always assumed that the food came from trade, since the village sits on essentially a giant rock..."

Shigeru began to gesticulate as if he were catching the thoughts flashed through his mind, one after another. It was a rope tightly reweaving itself as he spoke, all the colors disordered -

"...since that's just proven not to be the case, how do they repopulate without each generation losing genetic material and inbreeding? Is this why they eventually abandoned..."

And Shigeru continued, even though the more he spoke, the more he felt the chill spread over him. He was so close to understanding what was happening - there was something _right there_ at the edge of his knowledge, but what was it?

What was it? What was he missing? His eyes scanned the memory of data sheets and dirt and a hieroglyph and-

"... unrealistic. However, the teams haven't found fossils of giant bird pokemon in that vicinity, so perhaps-"

_"Shigeru,_" something interrupted, "_What are you talking about?_"

He came crashing back to himself with a start. The rope fell all around him, and he desperately tried to memorize the coils before they unraveled once more. But they had already mostly faded to the back of his mind. Shigeru took a long blink, then snapped his eyes towards Satoshi, sitting in the middle of the room with a curious expression, wondering with some indifference whether or not Satoshi had said anything.

And then he realized where he was, and the next thought that came was _What the hell! I was talking to myself again! And what did he ask me anyway?_

Shigeru opened his mouth to offer a defense, anything, some sort of excuse -

- and Satoshi began to laugh.

"Don't laugh at me!" shouted Shigeru, as a flush began to rise on his cheeks and up his neck. "I was thinking aloud!"

"Want to tell me what you were thinking of, again?" baited Satoshi, leaning into Shigeru.

A flush rose on Shigeru's cheeks and up his neck. Satoshi was _teasing_ him!

"No, I was thinking aloud!"

Satoshi moved forward and leaned forward on the palms of his hands

"Really," Satoshi sparkled. "I guess you weren't saying anything important."

Shigeru blustered as he leaned himself backwards, throwing out his hands for escape. "Of _course_ it was important! But I'm not going to waste my time trying to explain it to you if you couldn't get it the first time I said it!"

"Geez, sorry," Satoshi was mollified and became quiet for a moment. The flirtatious glint left his eyes, and Shigeru's body uncoiled itself from the anxiety that it had caused.

It was just a long enough stretch of time for Shigeru to remember what he'd been trying to say in the first place.

"Anyway, Satoshi, because we're outsiders - we're strange. And I was told that the village leaders think that we might be evil."

Satoshi's cheeks inflated as he tried to keep his laughter under control (Shigeru enjoyed the expression on his companion's face, as he may or may not have had a similar reaction when he had first heard the news from Masato). He also enjoyed that now, at least, he was not the only one who had been at a loss for words.

"On the chance that we're evil, of course, we had to be isolated from the other villagers so we couldn't curse them."

"If we were evil, wouldn't we have just cursed Masato and Haruka immediately? Or Masato at least," asked Satoshi innocently, his laughter now largely contained.

Shigeru snorted. So Satoshi agreed on his judgment of this world's Masato? "There are different types of evil, though. Sure, it's evil to curse the first person you see, but it's much, much more effective if we didn't act evil immediately, but waited for our _big chance_ to curse the village leaders."

"Then why would the village leaders want to meet us tomorrow?" Satoshi's shoulders dropped as he let out a sigh of obvious distress.

"They want to know who we are and what we're doing here."

"But if we're evil-"

"If we're evil, that wouldn't be a good idea, right?" Shigeru stuck out his finger and pointed it right into Satoshi's face (more for old time's sake than anything else, and it was actually just as satisfying as it had been during 'old times', too). He continued, sourly," That's where the 'fun' begins. Tomorrow morning, we'll be meeting the village leaders, but only after undergoing a series of _curse-preventing_ and _evil-searching_ tests."

"You mean like, walking on hot coals barefoot? Or running on a spinning log over a raging waterfall? Or eating the most pokefood in an hour without throwing up?" asked Satoshi. His eyes shone brightly and were imploring as they looked up to Shigeru. Of all the expressions that could've come over any human's face, Satoshi was just bizarre. Really, who else would actually look _excited_ at hearing something like that? And of all the responses for a human seeing such a face, even Shigeru couldn't quite understand why, but he quirked a smirk.

"Where _do_ you get these ideas?"

"I saw it on T.V. once," Satoshi mumbled, suitably chastened.

"You realize that there is _no way_ that eating ten pounds of pokefood would prove your integrity."

"I don't know," said Satoshi, dubious, "I don't think I'd feel like doing much of any cursing after eating that much pokefood."

"Sounds like you're admitting to having wanted to be evil."

"No different than the way you sound every day" Satoshi challenged boldly.

"Actually..." Satoshi trailed off, a smile on his lips. Shigeru placed his elbow on his thigh and rested his chin in his palm as he waited for the story. It took a moment before he realized that his lips, too, were twitching upwards.

He sat up immediately, fighting off the warm feeling that had been building in his chest without his notice.

"I'm hungry," he lied.

If Satoshi noticed the abrupt change, he didn't comment on it. In fact, Shigeru watched him move his hand onto his stomach sympathetically.

"Oh yeah," Satoshi groaned. His face paled as if he were ready to swoon. "How are we going to eat?"

It was a far more reasonable question than Shigeru wanted to give him credit for; in fact, Shigeru could've kicked himself, as he realized, _Of course, I spent all of my time today trying to figure out what we're doing here that I didn't even think about what I should _do _here._

"I'm sure Haruka and Masato plan on feeding us," he said instead, his voice purposefully ambiguous.

"Can they feed us now?"

"Want to go find them and ask? Why do I have to be your personal message boy?" Shigeru whined.

"Well, I thought you knew where they were."

"And I thought that you told me that this was their house, but I don't see them anywhere, do you?"

Satoshi crossed his arms. "I'll just wait, then."

He waited until the fire burned down to charcoal and emitted light no longer.

Shigeru had for a while now laid on his pallet, facing away from him. Satoshi frowned as he slipped under his covers and tried to find some comfort in the darkness. Without his friends, without his pokemon, it was nearly too quiet, and he clung onto the steady rhythms of Shigeru's breath with every fiber of his being. It ha been a tiring day...

Inhale, exhale. Awake, asleep.

* * *

_He_ wasn't sleeping.

The deception in itself wasn't unusual. Shigeru spent more time laying on his back staring into space than he did in an actual state of rest; it wasn't deliberate, or anything, but there was something in him that fluttered inside him at night. Sometimes, he could pinpoint what was bothering him. At Alph, for example, it was the heat and the sand. When he camped, it was the musty dew on his sleeping bag. Back home in Pallet, it was the too-crisp bed sheets.

Tonight, it was the sound of Satoshi's steady breathing as they laid beside each other.

Or maybe it was the fact that he didn't know where he was and didn't know where he was going and the inky black night had never been quite so _thick_ before.

But Satoshi was just as disorienting.

He wasn't doing anything. He was just laying there. He'd fallen asleep as soon as he'd closed his eyes. He wasn't breathing heavily, or snoring, or moving in his sleep. It was too dark for Shigeru to tell if he was scowling or if the muscles of his face were relaxed.

There wasn't anything to it... And yet, Shigeru couldn't ignore him.

Not that he ever could.

But why had Satoshi been so... meek? Why had he _apologized_? Did he think that it would change the fact that they were trapped in some bizarre world with no explanation (and yes, Shigeru really did believe that Satoshi was involved in this for some reason or another)? What did Satoshi think he would do, offer forgiveness for getting them stuck here? And what about - what about everything else? Did he honestly think that there was a way he could be forgiven?

Satoshi's guileless apology flashed before him; Shigeru's eyelids drooped; his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and still sleep didn't come.

He remembered having said,_"Seriously, is that _it? _You're just... sorry?"_

And then.

A wind-chime shook in a light breeze outside and masked the trembling sigh that he released, and the memory became a vision as Shigeru slipped into himself.

_They were in the field of hibiscus flowers. _

_The sun was scorching, and he could smell the sea nearby. More than that, the pungent aroma of dying blossoms and rotting petals wafted towards him. Satoshi didn't seem to mind the overpowering scent, however; he was skipping among them like a pleased child. He was- that is, a child again, and of ten years precisely. _

_Satoshi waved at him.  
_

_"Shigeru," he cried out. "Come here. See this." _

_"Ah," said Shigeru, nodding. He moved several steps forward, and the flowers on the ground parted to bring them together; yet beneath his feet, vines coiled and uncoiled like living snakes.  
_

_"Look up, look up," Satoshi pleaded. Shigeru obeyed and saw the sun. And then he realized that it wasn't the sun; it was only Satoshi's face; a burning, blinding light. Shigeru threw his hands over his eyes and looked towards the winding, moving tangle at his feet. A shadow seemed to pass over at last, and everything grew cold. Shigeru rubbed his arms where goosebumps had gathered.  
_

_"Are you cold?" asked Satoshi abruptly._

_"No," Shigeru lied. "I'm fine."  
_

_"You probably shouldn't stay here," the boy told him solemnly, as he reached for another flower. __"In the past. It's isn't warm enough. It's really cold."_

_ Shigeru stuck his hands in his pockets. "I don't see what that has to do with anything." _

_"Well, sometimes the present feels like the past. Doesn't it get cold on its own sometimes?" _

_Shigeru pinched the bridge of his nose. "No."  
_

_"Then why are you so cold, Shigeru? Why are you so cold?"_

_"I'm not going to answer that," he snapped. "And what's with all this talk about being cold - would you just stop speaking in riddles already? Can we... can we play, or something? Like we used to?"_

_A sharp wind whipped through the flowers and the vines and the two of them in the field. Shigeru knew how to recognize change, at least, and braced himself for an assault._

_"I'd like to play. I want to be friends again. But you're too cold." Satoshi bent down to pick up another blossom, but Shigeru stopped him in time. _

_"Listen. It's not because I'm cold, it's because you're you; isn't that reason enough?" _

_"How can you say that? I haven't even seen you for years! You don't even know me anymore!" Satoshi's eyes were incredulous. He straightened. "It's not my fault that you're so screwed up! Why are you so angry? It wasn't me that made you this way!"_

_"You don't know what you're talking about."  
_

_"I don't? Then what am I supposed to know?" asked Satoshi. His voice was deceptively light as he brushed off Shigeru, broke off yet another stem and twirled it in his fingers. "What am I supposed to know, Shigeru?" _

_"That you're the sun! That you're the one who made me have to be cold, just to live! You destroyed my life!" Shigeru shouted, and suddenly he began to cry.  
_

_A tear dropped off of Shigeru's chin and the vine snakes hissed as it hit their flesh. This was too much for them: they rose up in convulsions, their leaves flashing like teeth and their swiveling no longer seductive but charged with danger, palpable and angry._

_A cloak of grey settled over the vision and Satoshi's face blurred. He was no longer ten and he was no longer Satoshi, and there was a sun no longer drenching them with light but blistering him with cold terror. Seeing Satoshi as a child has reminded him of warmth, and happiness, and life. But this - **this** was guilt and hate and pain and death. _

_This was not something he could accept so easily. _

_"Satoshi," he hesitated only a moment before demanding, "Listen, come back! I want to go back! I can - I can explain!"  
_

_Only a menacing smile erupted from the darkened side of Satoshi's face, and then the vines, at last the vines attacked him - it was what he deserved after all - he knew this - and he crumpled to the ground. _

_On the ground now, the vines hissed as they churned over him, burning welts into his skin. Still, he could see the dark veil of shadow over the man where Satoshi had been. _

_'You... **You...**' _

_"You destroyed my life," Shigeru echoed himself, his voice weak. Blood leaked from his mouth like a hibiscus flower. _

_"No," said the disembodied voice, his voice deep and grating, "You deserved everything you got."_

The panic flashed and Shigeru forced his eyes open. The air began to clear away the scent of blood and hibiscus, but the smell of sea water remained. The cold remained, too, and Shigeru remembered the coarse blanket over his legs. He pulled it closer to his chest and looked around himself. His breath echoed in the too empty, too cold room, and the darkness lifted; yet the second world of his slumber resonated at the edges of his vision.

The words resonated, too: _"You deserved everything you got."_

And the cold was still so thick around him.

"No... I didn't," Shigeru whispered. But he didn't know if he believed it.

He struggled to calm his breathing. Surely, the air began to clear and the darkness resettled, no longer plagued with sparks of madness and dreams dancing in the corners. The memory of sleep disappeared and surrendered him to a chilly, desert solitude.

Yet his breath stayed shallow, his muscles taut and his leg aching. Satoshi - who might as well have been half a world away, and not merely a meter - laid still on his sheets, breathing deeply, with muscles loose. It was a cruel juxtaposition that Shigeru could not suffer lightly.

Sometimes, Shigeru couldn't sleep because of the heat, or the sand, or the stiffness of his bed. Some of the time he couldn't go to sleep because he was thinking through his research in his head.

But most of the time, it was because of the nightmares.

* * *

Morning came and Shigeru threw aside his covers immediately, a scowl already on his face.

The sudden commotion startled Shigeru, who always slept in his room alone, and liked to use the _Snooze_ function on his _Poketch_ alarm application, thanks.

But it wasn't entirely terrible. He felt light and he didn't know why. It may have had to do with his night vision; in his memory, there was the vague image of blood and flowers, but it was gone now, and it was just the memory of Satoshi, standing in that field, smiling at him. And that was all he had to hold on to.

Shigeru turned his head to look at Satoshi, whose black hair lay tousled on the bamboo weave of his floor bed. His eyelashes fluttered intermittently but showed no reliable signs that he was in the process of waking. The only thing more messily arranged than his hair were the sheets that were wrapped halfway around his legs.

He wondered whether or not he should wake him, but finally decided on _yes_ in the uncomfortable silence. He was, after all, still here and not home. But the stupid boy had always slept like a rock - in the middle of typhoons and riots, probably - and since Shigeru really would rather not have to _touch_ him, he really only saw one viable solution: to prod Satoshi with a poker stick.

For Satoshi, it wasn't altogether unpleasant, at least not at first. He was simply minding his own business in the middle of a dream.

Of course, he didn't realize it was a dream, he was too entrenched in his own situation by far. thought that he wad dodging marills and pineco in a fierce game of dodgepokeball, when he (presumably) got hit in the shin by some antagonist. Repeatedly. "Someone's using psychic pokemon!" he'd shouted, at the same time as he caught a marill and clutched it to his chest instinctively, "That's cheating! CHEATING!" Eventually he climbed a tree and escaped, but more importantly, the poking stopped, and he was able to resume his imagined game (which now involved using the Pineco as hand grenades).

He finally woke up to the smell of cooking food.

He had next to _no_ idea what it was, but the smell of spices and bread wafted to his nostrils and filled his lungs and that was all that he needed to break free from slumber and give him the strength to bolt upright.

_"Good morning!"_ he said, his voice thick. "You brought food! You found food!"

He tumbled from his covers and crawled unsteadily to the end of his bed sheets, only several feet from the outside of the fire ring. He rubbed his eyes and leaned forward towards the fire, and his stomach made a growl so loud and disarming it probably would have had worth as an attack in a pokemon battle.

Shigeru stretched out an arm to hold Satoshi back, and just in time to stop Satoshi from barreling into the fire, too.

"Get back," he scolded. "It's not ready yet."

"What is it?" asked Satoshi, peeking around Shigeru's body-block.

"Breakfast," Shigeru deadpanned. When Satoshi continued to stare, Shigeru felt obliged to add, "I'm making eggs, rice, and something I don't think you'd like me to identify. Haruka brought it by this morning and said we'll need our energy."

Satoshi's stomach seemed to agree as it cried forlornly.

"Are you going to die?"

"Maybe," groaned Satoshi. "I'm so hungry..."

"Well, suck it up. I didn't eat before I went to bed, either."

Satoshi stared at the food and chewed at his lip.

"Hey, Shigeru, before I forget, there was a question I wanted to ask you."

Shigeru made a noncommittal grunt and turned his poker in the charcoal bed.

"Last night, you said something in your sleep. And I was just wondering, because the name sounded familiar..." Satoshi cocked his head to the side. "Who's 'Foster'? Is he a friend of yours?"

"Hmm. Foster?" asked Shigeru, his voice flat. He spent a moment prodding an ember before meeting Satoshi's eyes with cool indifference. "... Never heard of him."

Satoshi opened his mouth again, but Shigeru's hand slipped and the fire poker hit Satoshi's hand, and caused his breakfast to slip into the fire.

"No!" Satoshi shouted, devastation written on his face, "It can't be... _gone_!"

In the ensuing scramble to salvage his food, Satoshi didn't notice that there was more than just one fire burning in that room.

The second one smoldered in Shigeru's eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

**writers note**  
Late update. Sorry, guys! I've had the craziest schedule at university lately, and then as soon as spring break arrived, so did my sister. It's been massively fun, of course, but I'm glad to be writing again in earnest. If this chapter is a little short, it's only to try and get it out sooner, so I can work on posting the next one by mid-April at least. While I admit the plot doesn't thicken much in this episode, I figured that it was about time for a break in the angst. OR IS IT?

Great news!! I have aquired a **beta**! Her name is **GreenFlower** and she is _utterly amazing in every way._ She has even made me some fan-art, which I'll link to in my profile as soon as it's finished. So please enjoy our combined efforts for this chapter!

* * *

**chapter six**

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When Haruka and Masato came in after breakfast, Satoshi made no effort to hide his relief. It had been uncomfortable with Shigeru - which, Satoshi knew, should have been expected in their situation. Even though they had smiled at each other last night, it probably didn't count of anything; after all, they were in some sort of bizarre reality that was not their own. He sincerely doubted that Shigeru would've stayed in the same room as him had they still been in their time, in Johto. So, considering all of the weirdness that they had just gone through, it made Shigeru's behavior seem almost graceful.

Almost.

Satoshi was actually just a bit sick of being ignored, or replied to with non-committal grunts or a shrug of the shoulders. He wanted to shake Shigeru's shoulders or steal his breakfast or something, and it was a good thing that company had come to interrupt or he would've gone through with his imaginings, no question.

"Haruka!" Satoshi enthused, jumping up from his place at the table. From the edge of his eye, he could see a rather indifferent Shigeru pause in folding up their bed-linens, just long enough to raise an eyebrow unpleasantly.

"Good morning, Satoshi. Shigeru," said Haruka, respectfully inclining her head to both of the guests. Satoshi watched curiously as Masato folded his arms and made an arrogant huff rather than a greeting.

Shigeru brushed his hand over the top of the now completely folded linens, and cleared his voice. "Masato, may we ask you a question?"

"If it were up to me, I wouldn't answer, but go ahead, ask away," said Masato. Haruka gave him a pointed look, which Shigeru seemed to be struggling to keep off of his own face.

"Should I give you a minute?" asked Haruka, her eyes not leaving Masato's.

"Yeah, that's great," said Satoshi. He watched Masato walk haughtily across the room and muttered "What's _his_ problem?" under his breath, sourly.

"What's the problem?" Masato asked Shigeru.

Shigeru stood up from his place on the floor, and now stood easily half a foot taller than Masato. _Ha,_ thought Satoshi, _Try to be condescending to us now!_ Of course, Satoshi conveniently left out the fact that Shigeru was easily half a foot taller than him, too. He'd always been told that he was short for his age.

"Masato, I imagine you're both here to take us to your chiefs man, and while Satoshi and I have no qualms about this meeting, I (at least) have something urgent I need to attend to first."

"A change of clothes?" asked Masato, eying up the rather anachronistic jeans, purple shirt, and lab coat that Shigeru wore. Satoshi kind of noticed that he wasn't dressed too differently.

"Actually, I need to relieve myself," Shigeru dead-panned.

The expression on Masato's face was so shocked that Satoshi had to bit the inside of his mouth to keep himself from bursting with laughter. Shigeru continued, as if entirely nonplussed: "It's been almost eighteen hours and I'm getting rather uncomfortable. I was worrying that I might have to adopt some pre-existing space in the room as a facility. I also feared that this might interfere with our meeting with the chiefs man today."

"Why didn't you just use the toilet?" Masato asked, looking rather pale.

Satoshi, however, quickly brushed off this observation of Masato's expression the moment he heard Masato say _toilet_. He interrupted, "Wait. You guys have toilets? Really? Where?"

"Of course we do," said Masato. He then paused, and looked at Satoshi sharply. "Which forces me to ask, where _did_ you go to relieve yourself when you excused herself to the restroom yesterday?"

A blush overtook Satoshi and he stared at the ground intently.

"...There was a bush..." he mumbled guiltily.

Shigeru snickered, and Satoshi at least wasn't embarrassed enough not to throw him a rude look for it.

"Well, look, don't use people's gardens anymore,and use the toilet over _here._" Masato gestured behind Satoshi's shoulder, and Satoshi whipped his head to look, half-way expecting a magical portal to have revealed a fully equipped room with an electric toilet, but he only saw the white-stoned wall, standing exactly the same as Satoshi had remembered it from the night before. It was vaguely disappointing.

"I'm sorry, do you mean to imply that we go to the bathroom on the fireplace, or on the wall?" asked Shigeru said, rubbing his nose.

"What are you..." began Masato; then, he shook his head and walked towards the large, multi-colored braided rug on the wall.

"Um... So wait, _does_ he really expect us to take a leak on a _rug_?" asked Satoshi, turning to Shigeru.

"Satoshi, shut up for a second and look," Shigeru said, motioning for Satoshi to look at Masato. Satoshi watched as Masato lifted the edge of the thick rug and revealed a wood-framed doorway and a dimly lit room beyond.

"That makes so much sense. I hadn't recalled that there were any structures built with only one room of living space," said Shigeru aloud.

"Ew, gross! My head was near that rug last night!" exclaimed Satoshi, "So _that_ explains my dream about dodge-pokeball last night."

"Excuse me," interrupted Masato, placing his hands on his hips and letting the rug slide back into place. "Will that be all? Or do you need help with the act, too?"

"I was potty trained successfully at a young age!" defended Satoshi, curling his fists.

Shigeru just nodded once. "Thank you, Masato. We'll be out in a moment. "

After Masato left, Satoshi turned to Shigeru. "We?" he asked.

"I'll be going first, and you can wait here. You know what? How about you don't move at all and just do what I tell you to do. Does that sound good to you?"

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" replied Satoshi. Of course, Shigeru had already flipped back the edge of the rug and gone inside the hidden bathroom. Satoshi stretched out his arms, yawned, and waited.

He hadn't even had time to get truly bored before he heard a muffled curse come out from behind the rug. Then:

_"...Satoshi."_

"Yeah, Shigeru?"

_"Can you call Masato back in?"_

"Sure. What for?" asked Satoshi.

_"I still don't see a toilet."_

Outside of the hut, Satoshi bounced back on forth from the balls of his toes to his heels, as he waited for Masato to finish explaining the bathroom to Shigeru. Satoshi had to admit, that after he'd peeked behind the rug curtain, the room hadn't looked anything like a toilet at all. The fact that a good portion of the room was charred from fire made him think that it was an oven, actually. Apparently, that wasn't the case; it just seemed that this village liked to have warm bathrooms. Of course, where he was from, there tended to be warm toilet seats and bidets, so maybe it wasn't that strange after all. He really wished that they used house slippers, though. Wearing his shoes inside Haruka and Masato's hut was getting him kind of nervous. He didn't want to imagine how Shigeru felt without bath slippers either.

"So-" Satoshi drawled out the word, and looked over at Haruka curiously, and maybe a little boredly, "What are we going to do exactly when we meet the village leader?"

With a far kinder voice than her younger counterpart, Haruka still managed to sound a bit ominous.

"Our chiefsman will explain things when you arrive," she said. "Sorry, I'm not supposed to give anything away..."

"Give things away?" asked Satoshi, furrowing his brow a little. "You make it sound like a game."

"A game? _A game?_ What a silly idea," said Haruka, laughing behind her hand. "Oh, one moment, I forgot to pick up the food trays inside."

Haruka disappeared inside the door frame with a flash of gold. When she came out, Satoshi could only focus on the mesmerizing sight of what had once been a meal, and he gazed at the plates and platters longingly. His stomach rumbled with the shared sentiment.

"Will we be eating again soon?"

"But I'm really, really hungry, and we didn't exactly get to eat consistently, and then my breakfast fell in the fire!" Satoshi crossed an arm over his stomach. "Is there anything we could eat?"

"Try these," offered Haruka, digging her hand out of a pocket in her tunic and revealing some rice snacks.

"Is that okay? It's not like your lunch or anything, is it?" asked Satoshi.

"No, don't worry," Haruka affirmed him, "I have plenty more food that I made for today."

"Oh," said Satoshi, popping one of the rice cakes into his mouth. Not even several full moments had passed before Satoshi had to stagger to maintain his balance.

"Haru-ka," he managed, mid-chew,"_Thesh are-- __a-mey-hing_!"

"I'm glad, but they're really nothing special," said Haruka, wringing her hands in her tunic, and blushing slightly.

Not like Haruka could even know, but those rice cakes tasted worlds better than the sandwiches and the grits that Satoshi had become accustomed to at the archaeological camp. In a way, they were almost like something that his own mother would've made him in the past. Of course, the spices in these rice cakes reminded him of nutmeg and curry and that was a far cry from the soy sauce of his childhood. It still tasted better than the charcoal remnants of the breakfast that he'd tried to salvage earlier, so maybe that was the real source of his enthusiasm. A bit of tea with the rice cakes would've been nice, but Satoshi was as ready to go as could be expected in the situation, and perhaps, more ready than would be expected (he really wasn't sure where or why he was going to see the village chief, or what he would do there, but mysteries and adventures had always been exciting to Satoshi). He felt as if Shigeru couldn't have finished up quickly enough.

Finally, Masato and Shigeru returned, Masato bewildered by all of Shigeru's questions, and Shigeru somewhat lost in thought and analysis. "This changes so much of what we'd assumed," Satoshi caught him mumbling to himself. He decided not to comment on it and maintain Shigeru's seemingly more friendly mood.

"Well, are we ready to go?" asked Haruka, clapping her hands together.

"Yeah, been ready," said Masato.

"I'm ready!" Satoshi shouted. "But I don't know where we're going or I'd be running ahead right now!"

Moving through the village on this morning was a little better than the last two times that Satoshi had done it. Before, he'd been in too much of a shock to really process anything; his first looks around, he'd been lost in a crowd and still somewhat dazed - like in a dream; he'd been flying on the back of a giant pokemon - which, combined with the surprise of finding Shigeru - had completely stolen his concentration; and then the last evening, he'd really not been able to see much beyond his own tears, and it was certainly embarassing enough to cry twice in one day.

The sun was bright overhead - another clear day, the kind that Satoshi honestly lived for. In the cities, there was always something of a haze that came from the pollution of cars or the warmth from all the buildings escaping the insulation. Cities made the edges of the horizon gray and bland. But here, even though it was a city, the sky was perfect blue as far as the desert ran.

So now, with that sun hitting the bricks of the street so brightly that they shone like dusty white gold, and a mass of gathered people in ancient garb, all that Satoshi could say was, "_Wow._"

And he could feel that same radiant energy from yesterday coming from Shigeru again. Satoshi grinned, knowing it was that part of him that really loved research and archeology. It made Satoshi think that he wasn't so upset about being here as he pretended to be, not if he got such an incredible chance to learn.

"Excuse me, but, Satoshi..."

Haruka's hand had found his shoulder, so Satoshi turned to look at her. Masato glared at him from behind Haruka's shoulder and Satoshi honestly wondered why he hadn't noticed the inherent evil in Haruka's younger brother during all of the year they'd traveled together.

"Once I take you to our village leader," explained Haruka, "I won't be able to speak to you. This is our ritual. So... I will wish you good luck, now, that your good intentions will be revealed."

Satoshi nodded dumbly.

Haruka walked past him and towards Shigeru, but when she reached for his shoulder, apparently she sensed his discomfort and withdrew her hand without a word. She still gave him a sort of 'blessing', though, which was nice enough, Satoshi thought.

"Good luck to you as well, Shigeru. It is my wish that your intentions, also, will not be misunderstood." Haruka finally addressed them both with a smile, which was quite nicely followed by Masato's perfectly matching frown. "I hope I will be able to talk to both of you again. Now, follow me."

Haruka set off at a brisk pace, Masato pausing only to cast a brief, final glare at the two foreigners before following right on his sister's heels. Satoshi fell into place behind Shigeru, who he caught muttering under his breath, "_'I hope I will be able to talk to you again'_, she says. Well, what does that mean, are they going to drown us or something if it goes badly?"

Suddenly panicked, Satoshi leaned in towards Shigeru and asked shakily, "You don't really think that we could _be killed_, do you?"

"It's an ancient tribe, Satoshi, who knows what they do?" Shigeru sneered.

Satoshi paled. "I, uh... You're kidding, right?"

And Shigeru, for some reason, appeared to relent; the frown on his face softened into a different expression that, suffice to say, Satoshi could not recognize.

"I wouldn't worry too much, Satoshi. You're like a Magikarp. You may be useless, but I doubt you could be killed, even if someone wanted to."

"Hey!" Satoshi bristled. "Was that a compliment or an insult?"

Shigeru smirked. "What do you think?"

"I think that you're a jerk," said Satoshi, honestly.

Shigeru shrugged and looked past Satoshi, his eyes catching on the people and their dwellings as he passed.

Satoshi's eyes fixed on him, pondering what had just been said. And what had been unsaid. Satoshi had never been good at understanding those things. But, Shigeru's face, at that moment-

_He almost looks happy,_ Satoshi mused.

And it made him happy, too, which was strange because he knew he shouldn't care so much about a _jerk's_ opinion, but he did.

A few minutes passed; a few streets passed. Their parade of four had just walked down a gentle, winding staircase of stone, the steps wide and so close in height that it imitated the very water that trickled alongside, falling through white molded half-pipes and waterfalls and open, pooling, moving water of the irrigation canals. The ground at the bottom of the staircase was a rusty tan, more chalky and more settled than the kind that Satoshi was used to in this place, and it was in the midst of this unfocused observation that Satoshi noticed, looking up from countless pairs of sandaled feet, someone with a bulging mid-section. It wasn't abnormal, but it was unexpected enough to see a pregnant woman, so Satoshi's eyes shifted from her stomach to her face. And he froze as recognition took him over.

From the bottom to the top; the first feature he distinguished was the braided ends of brassy orange hair. Then a sharp chin, a wide mouth, a small nose, and blue eyes that were surprisingly clear in such a harsh setting.

There was only one person in Satoshi's world who it could be, and now he knew that she was in this new world, too: _Kasumi_.

It was weird, it was impossible, to see Kasumi there, looking like that... looking changed. Haruka had been easy enough to spot, with her lilting voice intact and her eyes so much the same and soft. But Kasumi was different. She looked older than Satoshi remembered her, and her hair was dressed in a way that was barely recognizable, and her clothing was demure and shapeless, and she actually _shone_ with happiness. But even more than those things, the most stunning change Satoshi felt was in seeing her _pregnant_.

Kasumi... well, to be kind, Satoshi had rarely seen her as a nurturing figure. She was generally too violent or self-absorbed for that. True, she had her sweeter moments, but those tended to come when she was with her water pokemon, or giant Tentacruel. But if he thought about it, maybe he _could_ see it. Ever since she'd had Togepi (it was still hard to think of Misty's egg pokemon as its evolved form, Togetic), she had settled down more in her temperament. So maybe she wouldn't be such a bad mother. But to carry a life inside of her... It just seemed strange.

Satoshi blinked. He realized that next to her, leaning supportively, was a tall, tanned, spiky-haired profile that Satoshi found just as familiar. Kasumi and her - yes, definitely - _husband_ both weren't part of the throng that was staring at he and Shigeru in wonder. They were dipping jugs of water into the irrigation stream at the edge of the plaza, laughing and smiling at each other.

He only saw them for a moment before they'd moved too far down the staircase, and the crowds had enclosed them and hidden them from sight.

And he, too, continued to walk even though he felt shocked. He wasn't sure what it was that the scene had made him feel; surprise, certainly, at seeing his friends together in marriage - though they were dating, after all, so it really _could_ lead to that someday. And besides that, seeing a familiar face in such a strange context was panicking. He wondered who he would be seeing next.

And it made him feel strange, the knowledge that in this world, inside Kasumi's stomach was Takeshi's child. Maybe all of these feelings about it being 'wrong' didn't have to do with Kasumi, really. Satoshi felt his stomach drop as he realized the only part of the situation that truly felt out of place to him.

In this world, Kasumi and Takeshi had never known him and yet had found each other. A cold wave of energy rushed through Satoshi's blood, just like it had that time after he won the title of Pokemon Champion, but not so strong. Even so, he felt suddenly lonely and had to look away.

Shigeru caught his eye. And for some reason, although he expected that it would only make him feel worse, it didn't.

So maybe Shigeru was a jerk. Well, so what? At least Satoshi wasn't alone.

* * *

**a/n: **Would you believe this? The berber people group in North Africa have bathrooms that really look like miniature kitchens. I don't know how anyone would use them, either.


	7. Chapter 7

**writers note**  
Life was really ridiculous recently. I had been laboriously working through this chapter - I had over-researched this one part and lost all inspiration entirely. And then! I was in the car leaving Roswell, New Mexico, when suddenly I just had to write. I scrapped the half-chapter that I'd written before and eight hours later, this is what came. I've been steadily plodding through since then. And, I'll be spending the rest of the month participating in archaeological dig in Japan, so hopefully we'll be getting more inspiration from that as well!

Greenflower the beta is such a great beta fish. I am confident that she would beat you all in a beta fish fight. Everyone say huzzah to her for beating me with a stick over my sluggishness in updating this story! She is awesome.

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**chapter seven**

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Around the edge of the town, after they'd passed through the plaza filled with its vendors and laughing children, there appeared to be a series of stairs hewn from rock, much like the ones Satoshi had seen before leading to the Perch. This staircase, however, steeply ascended the edge of a craggy rock face without railing and without buffer; weaving and spiraling before ending as if into the sky itself.

He, Shigeru, Haruka, Masato, and some other people from the village - guards, or officials of a sort, Satoshi guessed - had been taking that escalator up the mountain for twenty minutes already, and still the distance of it loomed ahead, seemingly unchanged. And, since neither the mysterious attitude of Haruka, nor the grouchy demeanours of Shigeru and Masato had lifted, Satoshi had contented himself with looking around his surroundings from an increasingly panoramic view. When he caught Shigeru doing the same thing with a poorly concealed smile, Satoshi immediately caught up to him and began to talk.

"This is pretty tiring, huh? I wonder why the village leader wants to hang out all the way up there," asked Satoshi, pointing at the top of the staircase.

Shigeru rolled his eyes, but kept on walking, without moving over on the slight path, forcing Satoshi to keep to the trail behind.

"Well, for one thing, Satoshi," Shigeru spread out towards the vista below them. "The village leader can see everything from here. It's better for watching the village and making sure everything's going okay. It also symbolizes his position as a leader."

Accepting this answer, Satoshi looked up at the mountain and nodded several times. Haruka, who had been keeping up the back of the line, suddenly appeared at their sides with a delicate cough.

Satoshi punched his fist into his palm. "That's right, I remember now! Haruka told me that he rides a bird pokemon to the top of the mountain every day."

"Seriously?" Shigeru turned his head towards Haruka, utterly bewildered. "Then why do we have to take the stairs?!"

"To... build anticipation?"

Shigeru frowned. "It's not good for me to go up stairs! It puts me into a lot of pa -"

Immediately, he stilled. The air still buzzed warmly around him, but it was as if Shigeru had been frozen in time.

"Uh, Shigeru?" said Satoshi.

Haruka's eyes widened. "Are you... Is something wrong?"

"Haruka!" Masato's voice rung out with the sharp reprimand. "You're not allowed to talk to them!"

Haruka began to protest, flinging out her hands as she spluttered wordlessly. Satoshi looked back and forth between the siblings and then back at Shigeru, who was still looking at his leg. Satoshi couldn't tell what was going on in Shigeru's head; he wasn't very good at reading people, and Shigeru worse than others. But it seemed like Shigeru was surprised and for some reason, angry; this didn't make sense to Satoshi in the least.

He felt the awkward silence hanging in the air. Though, staring at the sky that wrapped vastly around him, the memory of flying on a giant bird pokemon only the day before surfaced and Satoshi gladly shared the idea it spawned.

"Now that I think of it, the Chief really had a good idea, huh? It's pretty hot and we still have a long way to climb. Why don't you just get Altaria to take you the rest of the way, Haruka? Shigeru and I can take Staraptor. I wouldn't mind riding him again," added Satoshi, wiping sweat from the back of his neck. Shigeru, red-faced from the walk and _whatever_ had just happened, appeared exasperated. He didn't say anything in reply, though, simply turning around, and, brushing his hand against the juniper bushes alongside the weaving staircase, he caught some of their leaves and crumpled them in an angry fist. He continued on the path, and beside Satoshi, Haruka nervously put her hands together.

"I do think it would be better if we walked, though. We'd get there faster than if we called bird pokemon," she said, slowly.

"Are you still scared of him?" asked Satoshi.

"N-no, not at all!" laughed Haruka. "Shigeru seems... nice."

"Shigeru?" Satoshi asked, puzzled. "I was still talking about Staraptor..."

After further reflection, he added: "Shigeru's not that nice, either, now that you mention it."

From the front came Masato's overly familiar, and now immediately discernible, condescending scoff. Satoshi was pretty sure he overheard Masato grumble something about 'breaking ceremony' but lost himself in conversation with Haruka anyway. She was more than happy to explain to him how one went about building a trail up a vertical mountain, and the difficulties that came in it from erosion or other natural dangers. Of course, since there was only enough room to walk single file - or walk over the edge of the path and fall into empty space - Satoshi wasn't sure the whole venture was worth it. Haruka laughed, and Shigeru generally ignored them, his head down and his eyes (undoubtedly) glowering as he kept several strides ahead of the group.

That is, until he came up to the last step, and his body tensed and froze like a jolt of lightning was passing through.

"Shigeru!" Satoshi barreled forward, mindless of his footing, "What's going on? What do you see?"

Satoshi could barely see it from the angle he as at, but Shigeru's mouth seemed to twitch several times before he was able to soothe his expression and take a few more steps forward.

Satoshi, tailing him, reached the top of the staircase merely moments later, and he found his jaw dropping, too.

There sat, on a large, mutli-colored cushion, an apparently very happy, very tan, fairly fat, fairly old man. Patterns in white paint - or was that tattoo? _impossible!_ - adorned his face, neck, arms, and bare belly. In his ears were bone earrings. Around his waist there _was_ more than a loin cloth, for which Satoshi had never even realized he could be so grateful. The fact was, this tribal leader held no semblance to the person who Satoshi had known since his childhood.

"There's no way that that's Ookido-sensei," said Satoshi, turning back to his friend-turned-rival-turned-who-knew-what. But Shigeru's eyes remained fixed straight ahead.His jaw seemed slightly unhinged, actually, and there was a light sheen of perspiration collecting on his forehead. Of course, that could've been from the heat and the climb up the mountain. Satoshi had been certainly been doing his share of sweating. He did a quick underarm smell check. Surprisingly, not that bad.

"To to to to to to," greeted the old man. This seemed to be his way of laughing, Satoshi reasoned. Something about it was so absurd that Satoshi laughed, himself.

Shigeru's head whipped around to stare at Satoshi, and then whipped back towards the chiefsman. There was no question now: he appeared horrified.

"Shigeru-san, are you okay?" piped up Haruka from behind.

"Shigeru, there is no way that that is Ookido-sensei," managed Satoshi, inbetween giggles.

"You don't think I'd recognize my own grandfather?" growled Shigeru. "He raised me and my sister from the age of four! I _know_ what he looks like!"

"But, Shigeru..."

"Would you just sit down already?!" called out Masato in a whine, from several meters below. "I'm tired of standing on this staircase for no reason!"

"I thought you guys weren't supposed to talk," said Satoshi.

Warily, Shigeru stepped forward and inched around the edge of the circle of tribesmen that had seated themseleves around the embankment of rock. Satoshi looked at them in amusement. They were all wearing loose-weave skirt-tunics, of an almost slate shade, though several of them had piercings, too, and all of them had the same, apparently symbolic, white tattoos on their chests, arms, and faces. They also all had long hair kept up in buns on top of their heads.

"Strange young men!" cried out a deep baritone, from the middle of the circle. Shigeru and Satoshi both whipped their heads around and stared at a man who was at the side of the Chiefsman.

"Kenji!?" they cried in unison.

"There are two seats for you here, before the Chiefsman," said Kenji, motioning towards two flat stones that apparently were meant to function as seats. Warily, Satoshi and Shigeru shared a glance, and moved towards the absurdly familiar (albeit oddly attired) figures of their friends.

As Satoshi sat down, he realized several things in quick succession: for one thing, the Chiefsman was sitting on some sort of bamboo chair that looked perilously close to being crushed by said Chiefsmans' weight, and secondly, on a flat stone in front of them lay a drawstring leather pouch.

"I wonder what that is," Satoshi thought aloud. "Hey, Shigeru..."

The brown-haired boy, however, was still staring at the Chiefsman as if the world were about to fall down around him. It seemed that the old man was oblivious to this much, at least, as he (and the Kenji look-a-like) was speaking with Haruka and Masato.

Satoshi elbowed Shigeru in the ribs.

"Hey, Shigeru! Snap out of it!"

Shigeru looked at him from the side of his eyes. Satoshi flinched at the expression he found there; it was rather glazed over and disturbing. Satoshi briefly wondered if Shigeru had lost it, so to speak, especially since now he was speaking in a way that Satoshi couldn't describe as anything less than conspiratory.

"There was this one year, when I was nine," he said, slowly. "We'd gone to visit a tribe in the Orange Islands and we participated in a ceremony that was the crowning of Sloaking. My grandfather was the - err - special guest." Shigeru swallowed. "That night, we arrived in the middle of the jungle. My grandfather... I... I thought I'd never have to see anything that disturbing again."

"What did your grandfather do?" asked Satoshi, his gaze wandering from Shigeru to several tribesmen who were apparently motioning Shigeru towards a sort of stone bench carved out from the side of the mountain. For a researcher, Shigeru was acting incredibly unobservant. "Really, it couldn't have been that bad, could it?"

"You don't understand. He - he looked almost exactly the same as the man you see sitting in front of us. Except that Gramps is pale as a sheet. When they dressed him up in white paint, you could barely see the paint. And... And it was so horrifying... I should've stopped him. I should have never let him do it."

Haruka and Masato had both made it up to the platform and were speaking with several tribesmen, who were holding large staffs with steel-fashioned spears tied with leather straps on the ends. There were red hibiscus flowers, too, though Satoshi found those to be a rather less threatening accent.

"Uh, it's okay, Shigeru... I've seen your grandpa do a lot of strange stuff, too. He also gets attacked by pokemon a lot."

Finally bored by Shigeru's stupor and continued silence, Satoshi leaned back, turning a bit, propped up with his arm extended behind him and stared out at the sky and the sea and the town below. His look of wonder became a look of contentment and a soft smile.

There had always been something about being up high that would make Satoshi feel excited, no matter where he was. He had climbed mountains and had seen vistas that would make artists weep, with mist rising and with sunlight trickling in like melting snow between the highest peaks. He had been on islands, and on top of dormant volcanoes, and underneath active ones. There is something different about the excitement stirring in him now, however. For one, he didn't have with him the blanket of safety that came with having his best friend, his Pikachu, at his side. Neither Takeshi or Kasumi or Kenji or Haruka (and Masato) or even Hikari were with him. Having Shigeru instead felt different. It wasn't any better or worse, as far as he could tell, that it was _Shigeru_ with him rather than someone else. The thing that bothered Satoshi more than anything was the fact that his old friends _were_ with him, but they were people he didn't even know.

The man who had once been Professor Ookido, Shigeru's grandfather and guardian, now sat on a seat of bamboo leaves, his chest covered in strange tattoos. Conferring with him were Haruka, Masato, and Kenji, the latter face being perhaps the least surprising to Satoshi, who had always known Kenji to be rather obsessed with the professor in his more familiar world, at least.

Satoshi turned to Shigeru, to comment on that particular serendipity, when he felt a spear point nudge him in the back.

"Woah!" he cried out, stilling the turn of his head immediately. "What-"

From the corner of his eye, he saw Shigeru mouth the words 'quiet', and jerked his chin forward, towards the center of the circle. Satoshi looked and sure enough, now only three people remained in the middle; the chieftain still was seated in his throne of sorts, while in front of him, Haruka was passing her hand over a set of clay pots. As soon as her hand had passed, the interior of them lit with flame, and grey, burnt orange, and white waves of incense wafted out from within. Once this had been completed, she clapped her hands and took from her sash an intricately carved knife, the handle made of ivory and of similar design to the ocarina she had used for calling Altaria. She leaned down to the ground, and sweeping the skirt of her tunic to the side, knelt on the ground, began to carve into the rock. As the knife made contact with the surface, sparks flew up. Satoshi strained to see what she was drawing, but from where he sat, he could only make out a circle for certain.

Haruka finished, coming to her feet and sheathing the knife once more in her sash. She clapped her hands once more, and bowed her head without releasing her palms. The smokes around her began to part and, rolling, overwhelmed the entire circle in smoke but for a path that rolled open like a carpet straight from the center to Satoshi and Shigeru.

Satoshi watched, horrified and fascinated, as the smoke danced right up to him and though not touching him, undulated, as if beckoning him forward.

"Outsiders, please come forward," Kenji called out again, in a very deep voice.

Satoshi hesitated for a moment - after all, there was still a spear pressing into his back rather pointedly - but somehow he scrambled to his feet all the same and walked the path lined and walled by intoxicatingly fragrant smoke. It only took moments to arrive at the center of the swirling smoke, all which seemed trapped by an unseen barrier from entering the vicinity of the carved circle in the ground. Satoshi looked at his feet in wonder, now able to appreciate the intricacies of what Haruka had made; there was an outer circle, lined by the clay pots, and within there was a sort of rectangle some several feet before the chief.

"Stand back! Remove your shoes!"

His own compliance took him by surprise; he didn't tend to take Kenji very seriously. But all the same, Satoshi was already untying his shoes before he realized what he was doing, and from a covert glance at Shigeru, it seemed true for both of them. There was no time to think it strange, though, because the voice - it must be coming from the area covered in smoke, thought Satoshi, since he couldn't seem to find its source - was calling out again.

"Step into the circle."

They did.

Haruka clapped her hands, and straightened. She opened her eyes and the smoke immediately dissipated, melting into the clear air once more. She bowed again, and stepped out from her place in the circle. It was now just Satoshi, Shigeru, and the chief. Satoshi set his jaw determinedly, and looked up towards Professor Ookido, who waved his hand towards them like a gracious host as he stood.

"You may kneel," he said, as if bestowing some incredible favor on them. Which it was, kind of.

"Outsiders," Ookido-sensei now boomed, "What are your names?"

Shigeru spoke quickly, with a bow of his head. "Shigeru, sir."

"And I'm Satoshi... Uhm, _sir_," Satoshi added belatedly.

The chief sat back in his seat, as if considering this information. "And where are you from?"

"Pallet town," said Satoshi. "It's in the Kanto region. Actually, Shigeru and I, we're both from the same place."

"Oh? You have the same mother?"

Shigeru looked absolutely affronted, for some reason. "No, we are _not_ related. I have a sister, obviously absent. And Satoshi is an only child."

"I see," said the chief. He shifted in his seat, rather distractingly, since the fat on his stomach rippled with the movement.

"And what do you do as your trades, Satoshi and Shigeru of Pallet town?"

"We, are, well-" Satoshi fumbled for words. He had been about to say 'pokemon trainer' or even 'pokemon champion', but he remembered Haruka's words in the Perch, and how she hadn't understood. How pokemon seemed to interact with people differently in this village. And besides that, Satoshi hadn't been training pokemon for a year - not really. It struck him suddenly that he wasn't sure what he did at _all_. There was something in that that worried him.

He turned to Shigeru, his eyes flashing desperately. He didn't want to lie, but he didn't even know what was true anymore. Shigeru made eye contact with him, only for a moment, before looking away and facing the chief.

"We are researchers, sir. I investigate science and the past. My friend, Satoshi, is a traveler. He seeks to understand pokemon wherever they may be, and to become their friends."

A murmur began outside the circle. Satoshi winced, seeing the village people break out into conversation with that knowledge. He had thought that Shigeru had stated the truth of what they did pretty well.

"Look, Mister Chief, those are pretty normal activities where we're from," Satoshi defended. "But we _are_ pretty good at it."

The chief cleared his throat pointedly. "Please explain further, Satoshi, Shigeru, what is your _trade_."

Shigeru's palm flew to his face. "We. _Well_. We don't have trades exactly, sir. We simply... travel and study."

The chief leaned forward, eyeing the two of them speculatively.

"Do you not provide for your families?"

A brief vision of his mother, smiling and waving him goodbye flitted in Satoshi's mind. "They don't need our help," he said, and he realized that this was true. Ever since he'd turned ten, his mother had been fine on her own. She'd even been able to take care of herself without his father. She was stronger than he'd realized.

Shigeru added, looking at his grandfather's doppelganger with as much irony as his eyes could hold, "My grandfather is a greatly respected man in his community. Like me, he is a scholar, and does not have a trade besides."

The professor Ookido look-a-like, now the Chief, affected a very familiar, skeptical expression. It reminded Satoshi of all of the times that the professor had chided him for not catching more pokemon for him to study.

"Does this mean you are both unwed?"

"Uhh," Satoshi's hand found its way to the back of his neck, and he rubbed it nervously. "Well, I'm kind of young..."

Masato sputtered behind them.

"Impossible! Unmarried and without a trade -- they're either thieves or princes!" he declared.

"Princes?" he repeated, incredulously, and laughed. It was fairly obvious, though, that it didn't seem as incredulous to the village elders in the outer circle as it did to him, as they watched Shigeru and himself stoically, as if afraid that his laughter was a mere prelude to some dastardly, criminal deed. Shigeru, too, cast a glare at him. Satoshi cut off his laughter rather abruptly after that.

The spicy scent of the incense still lingered, somewhat, but only at the edges of Satoshi's mind as Shigeru began to speak.

"Prince or thief, it doesn't matter, does it?" Shigeru interrupted. "We just want to go back to where we're from. We don't want to cause you any trouble or inconvenience."

The chief tapped his fingers against the front of his bamboo chair. "Then what are you doing here?"

"Nothing," said Satoshi.

"We don't know," added Shigeru.

The chief lowered his chin. "And how did you get here?"

Satoshi looked at Shigeru nervously. How to explain it, exactly...?

"We don't know that either, sir," said Shigeru. "There was a sort of bizarre accident."

"Then why did you want to come here?"

"It may surprise you, but I don't actually want to come here. In fact, staying in your village is really disorienting. So I'd rather go back to where I'm from, too."

"Yeah, that's true," Satoshi agreed. "We just kind of came here."

"And I woke up on the sand of that beach feeling like I'd died and been born again. What am I supposed to make of _that_? I had already been alive and I was okay like that. I was _okay_."

There was something in Shigeru's voice that didn't sound as confident as Satoshi would've expected it to, and he shifted uncomfortably as he wondered why it was. He began to speak even before he knew that he had opened his mouth.

"I woke up in Haruka and Masato's home, so I don't know where I should woken up, but before I did, I remember that there had been an earthquake, and uh - this is weird, but - I thought I heard singing. Or some sort of music. After that, I thought I'd been buried alive. Except I woke up completely okay, but in a place I hadn't been before. You've gotta believe us... This is all really weird," he trailed off, strangely dejected. Their story really did sound ridiculous.

"Young man," said the chief. He furrowed his wiry white eyebrows together, and folded his arms. "You hadn't come by sea or air, but had - unexpectedly - been transported here in an earthquake?"

"It seems that way," said Shigeru, now with a voice that was droll and emotionally unyielding, "And I don't blame you for not believing us."

For the first time, a broad smile broke out on the chief's face, once again effecting a happy, jovial appearance to the man.

"Oh, quite the contrary," he exclaimed. "I think we can very nearly trust you."

"Really!?" said Satoshi.

"Nearly?" said Shigeru.

"Of course! It's just like you said earlier. It's not important whether we trust you or not," the chief added, nodding his head in a sagely manner, and clasping together his hands. "Since we're sending you away."

* * *

The boat was just like any other that he would've expected to see. When Shigeru felt the wood it seemed sturdy enough, and though it was very lightweight, it didn't seem like it was about to rot. It was only the color that seemed uncertain, and prematurely aged. The constant rub of sand and saltwater had cast the boat a light grey shade of taupe. The pair of oars were much the same, worn and dyed a dark shade at the handle from passing through many palms.

More than anything else, though, Shigeru's eyes were fixed on the oars in Satoshi's hands as he steadily pushed the boat along its course. Sitting opposite of each other, Shigeru couldn't help where his eyes had fallen and rested; though, to be fair, it wasn't that Satoshi's hands were extremely unusual, or deformed; they weren't especially big or small, even. But there was something about the way Satoshi used them - something in the way that they moved that felt like the very application of quiet strength. There was a confidence in his hands, in the calluses on his fingers. So much so that it was soothing, even though the shoreline and the beach with all of its hibiscus flowers was growing further away with every stroke.

The water, though, was clear enough, and a deepening shade of blue. The sea was fairly calm, also, with only small waves now that they had pushed out past the main reef and entered the true edge of the sea. But, with the sun beating down, as intently as it ever had in the deserts of Alph, Shigeru couldn't help feeling a certain degree of unease.

"We're getting pretty far out now, huh?" commented Satoshi.

Shigeru, coming back to himself, nodded. "It's strange, though, to think that we're leaving Alph. If there was any place that had clues for us, about how to get back home, it would be there."

"Not necessarily," Satoshi said, lightly, "There's plenty of, well, you know... I bet there's plenty of ways to get back."

"Just as many as got us here, I'd bet."

Satoshi took his row out of the water and rested it on the side of the boat so he could rub his upper arms. "We can't exactly go back there, though. Those spears seemed kind of sharp and uh, I don't want to face them from the wrong end."

"Well I don't see what the big deal is," Shigeru complained, digging the oar into the water ferociously. "We're just outsiders, that doesn't make us _dangerous_! They should've let us stay. Besides, when I said I wanted to leave, it was obvious that I meant that I wanted to go back to where we're from... which is the future... I guess that wasn't as obvious as I'd thought it had been. But that was no reason for us to have to take a freaking boat and leave!"

"Shigeru, you're making us go in circles."

"Then you should start rowing again, too. We need to get to mainland after all, and we don't even know where it is."

Sighing, Satoshi picked up his oar and stuck it into the water. "All right."

It was hardly five minutes before Satoshi stopped rowing again. This time it was Shigeru sighing, though in exasperation.

"What is it?"

Satoshi bit his lip. "Do you think... Do you think Pikachu might be back at Alph?"

"Why?"

"Well," Satoshi leaned forward and loosely enfolded his knees inside his arms. "I was with Pikachu when the earthquake happened."

Shigeru was silent for a moment. "Satoshi, I didn't even arrive with my _pokeballs_. But they had been on my belt when the earthquake happened."

"Oh," Satoshi said, his voice low and his expression simply screaming his dejection.

Shigeru rolled his eyes. "Look, this is not the time for you to be acting like a girl."

"'m not actin' like a girl," muttered Satoshi.

"Fine. Act like a man and keep rowing."

"Do you think we can take a break now?" Satoshi asked, petulantly. He rubbed his biceps languidly. "I feel like I can't move anymore."

"You'll just have to push harder. We have a long way to go before we reach land fall, you know," Shigeru said.

Satoshi, mollified, put his oar back into the water and moved his arms in a steady stroke.

_Thud._

For a split second, the boat seemed to ricochet off of itself; in the very next moment, it bobbed on the sea as if nothing had happened at all.

"What was that?" wondered Satoshi.

"That's what happens when you suck at rowing," Shigeru jeered.

"Hey! That sound came from _your_ side of the boat, not mine!"

"Whatever! You're the one who was complaining."

"Yeah, 'cuz I was doing the hard work! You were just steering and I had to push the boat along! And... And you were complaining too!"

"Fine, if you're going to be a baby about it, let's switch places, and I'll do the 'hard work' for you."

With his arms stretched out beside him, Shigeru slowly rose to his feet. Satoshi did the same, though less gracefully. After an awkward dance around each other and the wooden planks that served for seats, the boys had switched to opposite sides.

"Now, let me demonstrate how to do this correctly," said Shigeru, placing the oar into the water.

"I know how to row a boat," muttered Satoshi.

"To propel the boat forward you have to put the weight of your whole body into the stroke, like this--"

Aside from a weird bump that happened just as the boat crested a passing wave, the boat didn't move at all.

Shigeru blinked in bewilderment.

"Ha ha! See? Nothing's happening!" Satoshi shouted triumphantly. "You suck at rowing, too!"

Shigeru jumped out of his stupor, bristling. "I do _not_! The bottom of the boat is probably just hitting something so it won't move! Hold on, I'm going to check the sides of the boat," he said, putting down his oar and scooting over to the edge of the boat. The sea water lapped against the wood with little waves. He put his hand in the water and felt along the side and bottoms of the boat as far as he could reach.

"It doesn't look attached to anything on this side, and I don't see any damage," he said. "Satoshi?"

"Uh, Shigeru? I think there might be something here."

Shigeru righted himself immediately. "Do you see a leak? Are we, are we going to sink?"

"No, I-"

"Then what is it? A pokemon attached to the boat?"

Satoshi's face was lost and terrified and regretful all at once.

"It's not on the boat. It's... Uh, just... Look," he pointed out to a patch of the sea not a full boat length away. Shigeru shielded his eyes with his palm and squinted. At first glance, the water seemed same as any other spot, with choppy waves all around. Except - maybe - there was one place, where it seemed as if the water was splashing against itself.

"If it's a boulder, we can work around it. We can deal with it," Shigeru encouraged.

"How?" asked Satoshi. "We can't even see it..."

"Let me see what it is."

"Alright," said Satoshi, picking up an oar. "Why don't you try to reach it with this?"

"And poke it?" Shigeru snorted reproachfully.

Satoshi glared back at him. "I don't hear you having any better ideas!"

"Fine." Shigeru took the oar and scrambled over the small bench where he had sat originally. The boat sank several inches deeper on that end, where both Satoshi and Shigeru's weight overwhelmed the small ocean craft.

"You try to stay at the middle while I lean out of the boat, alright?"

"Should I do anything?"

Shigeru turned around.

"Yeah. You're going to have to hold on to me," he demanded. "I can't reach it from here."

"Why don't you just swim out to it?"

"Because we don't know what's out there. If it's a pokemon, it could take me under and you won't be able to do anything, because you don't have any pokemon with you."

"I won't be able to do much if I'm holding you by your legs, either," pointed out Satoshi. All the same, he sat down next to Shigeru and tentatively put his hands around Shigeru's legs.

"If you go much further out, I won't be able to hold you anymore," he warned.

"That's okay," Shigeru replied. As he felt his hips break the water surface, he turned his head to see Satoshi clutching his knees with a rather pained expression.

"Just find out what it is!" Satoshi shouted, tightening his grip. "You're kind of heavy!"

Shigeru made a face at him. Then, he turned his head to the side, took a deep breath, and reached under the water's surface. Halfway submerged, his eyes tightly shut to keep out the salt, he swished his arms through the sea. Nothing. He resurfaced, and strained his neck to see the place where the waves were meeting together. He went under once again, and this time, the tips of his fingers brushed against something slick.

He jerked back and came up immediately.

"What is it!?" asked Satoshi.

Shigeru gasped for air. "I don't know! We need to get closer. Do you think you can move the end of the boat towards me?"

"And still hold on to you?" Satoshi shook his head. "I think the boat'll capsize if I try to do both! Besides, the front is still really stuck for some reason."

Shigeru huffed, and spit out the salt water that had splashed into his mouth. "Fine, then. Throw me an oar."

The oar landed in the water beside him with a very wet 'plop'. Shigeru reached over and dragged it to himself.

"Alright, why don't you try to hit it again? Let's find out how big it is."

Shigeru prodded the oar forward through the water. Just like when he had reached with his hand, the oar made contact with something and came to a stop. Biting his bottom lip, Shigeru dragged the oar as far left as he could. Then, he moved the oar back to his front and tried moving the oar to the right, and just like when he'd moved the oar to the left, he could feel the oar touching the solid, smooth surface.

"It seems really long!"

Shigeru let his forehead fall forward and float on the surface of the water. "I think it's a boulder or some sort of rock. It's really smooth, though. I just wonder where it's caught our boat."

Satoshi rather absentmindedly released and tightened the grip of his hand against Shigeru's ankle. It gave Shigeru the urge to kick him away, but he refrained. Even more than he didn't want to be touched, he didn't want to be released into the ocean.

It startled him to realize, again, that his leg wasn't bothering him as much as usual. He had noticed it before, of course, when he'd had no problem walking up the mountain, and it was ludicrous enough to be annoying and maddening. Now, even with Satoshi holding him by the ankle with hands like anchors, the idea that he wasn't experiencing any pain was nearly frightening.

Satoshi's voice broke through the quickly gathering haze of anxiety.

"Shigeru, do you... Do you think we could lift the boat _over_ it? Over the stone, or the obstruction, I mean?"

After a pause, Shigeru nodded in agreement. "If we both get out of the boat and hold it above our heads, that should probably work."

Satoshi pumped a fist in the air. "All right! Just tell me how high _it_ goes, and we can get a move on!"

Shigeru took hold of the oar again, and as he prepared to cut it into the water, there was another _Thud_.

"Did you hear that?!" called out Satoshi. Shigeru turned back, glaring.

"Of course I heard it! Did you just hit the boat against the boulder again?"

"No," said Satoshi. "I thought- I thought it was you hitting the oar against the boulder."

Shigeru narrowed his eyes, and once again, raised his oar--

-- and there was another _thud_. No question. Except, the oar wasn't hitting anything. It was still mid-air, and, as far as Shigeru had ever known, the air did not go _thud_.

Blinking the sea water from his eyes, Shigeru looked up to where the oar touched the sky, and water droplets trailed from the end of the oar in straight lines down the hardened air, like rain drops against a glass window, or tears on the lenses of glasses.

"Shigeru! Shigeru, what's happening? What are you doing with the oar? You're - You're trembling. Are you cold? Shigeru?"

He dropped the oar from his hand. It fell to the surface of the water and he didn't even flinch when salty droplets splashed him in the face.

His jaw opened as if it were held together with rusty hinges. "There's a wall," he managed. "There's a _ wall_!"

"What do you mean 'a wall'?" Satoshi's voice was incredulous.

"I mean that there's something in both the water and the _sky_ that we can't see that we can't get past!"

Satoshi's grip tightened behind Shigeru's knees. "Well... But, maybe it's just a giant invisible pokemon? Or - or a mirage? We're in the middle of the ocean! Why would there be a wall there?"

Shigeru picked up the oar again, lifting it to the sky, and slammed it into the seemingly empty space as if he could break the wall through and through, but the only thing that gave way was the hope that he'd been harboring inside.


	8. Chapter 8

**In Ruins**

Chapter Eight

* * *

The sun had finally had its share of the day and was crossing the sky with rapid descent. Golden rays tickled the edges of all of the objects in Satoshi's vision. It was like everything, being bathed in the corners by light, was fraying on the edges into outstanding, overpowering light.

Had Satoshi still been in his room in Pallet town, he would've spent the time staring after it, but he had no love of beauty in him to make such a concession. Instead his thoughts churned with confusion and stress, the product of more trying days than even this one alone could account for. The ache in his muscles further flummoxed him, being obviously unpleasant, yet welcome. It was the distinct tension wrought by adventure and mystery, and it was one he had only in the past hours come to realize he had missed.

Shigeru, though, didn't seem the least bit nostalgic of adventures past; honestly, he looked like he was about to choke on the lump inside his throat, but was determined to row the boat straight through to shore all the same. Satoshi had no choice but to row at Shigeru's pace, which annoyed him somewhat, as he was feeling his nerves and - adventure or not - he wanted to get the confrontation over with.

In a rather disagreeable silence of their own thoughts, they continued paddling back towards the island, Satoshi for his part wondering how it could take so long to travel such a seemingly short distance - how far away was the horizon, anyway?

By the time the island was swarming over their vision, they began to hit the shallows at last. And abruptly Satoshi realized that the twin lights he had seen flickering in the distance were torches. They were being held by -- Satoshi strained his eyes -- Haruka and Professor Ookido (or, the Chieftain, rather). The pair of flame-topped staffs shone more vibrantly than the sun, which had retreated behind the island of Alph, and given it the same preternatural glow around a silhouette.

"Shigeru, they've... they've waited for us!" said Satoshi, shocked. "Do you think that's good?"

Instead of responding, Shigeru merely stared past Satoshi, and dug his oar into the water ferociously.

"Do you think that it's bad?"

Still, no response. Satoshi huffed softly and tried again.

"Shigeru..."

"I heard you!" he snapped.

"Geez, sorry for interrupting," said Satoshi, sarcastically._ Bastard,_ he thought uncharitably. He wasn't too much of an idiot not to realize that Shigeru was in a mood, and besides, their boat had gotten to a depth of water that was easy swimming range from shore. And, he realized, snapping back to the present, that Haruka had moved. She now stood in the waves up to her knees, holding the wet bottoms of her dress, and the openness of the gesture was really just so much like _his_ Haruka that he knew immediately that everything really would be okay.

He dropped his oars, stood up, and the boat rocked.

Shigeru grabbed him by the pant leg. "What are you doing!?"

Satoshi ignored him - quid pro quo, after all - and waved his arms over his head.

"He-e-y!" he called out. "Ha-ru-ka! We're back!"

* * *

As Haruka ran past the edge of the water, smiling, Shigeru felt a stronger flash of fear than if she had run up with a dagger and warriors behind her. He hadn't realized that he'd come to expect the worst until he wasn't - for once - the recipient of it.

"Haruka!" shouted Satoshi through cupped hands. "We got stuck out there!"

Shigeru tried to look nonchalant. "Satoshi, you can wait until she gets here, at least, before telling her everything."

He got the impression from the set of Satoshi's shoulders that if it had been anyone else, he would've just been given the finger.

"I know, I guessed," Haruka called back to Satoshi. She was now wading towards them with bigger and bigger strides. "I'm glad you made it back before nightfall!"

Satoshi pulled his oar in from the water. "What do you think she meant by that?" he wondered.

There were a million different possibilities racing through Shigeru's mind, and most of them weren't very positive. Shigeru shook his head. "I don't-"

He was cut off again.

"Haruka!" Satoshi called out brightly. "Were you waiting for us all afternoon?"

"_-think it's a good idea to say anything just yet_," Shigeru finished, shoving his foot against the side of the boat in irritation.

Haruka reached out and grasped the helm of the boat. She looked up at them with a strangely hopeful expression. The clear water lapped around her torso as if it were trying to swallow her up.

"You _were_ waiting for us!" crowed Satoshi.

Haruka answered him slowly. "Well, um, we kind of knew about the wall already."

"Woah, wait a second." Shigeru swung around so quickly that the boat lurched. "What do you mean 'you knew'? What's going on here?"

"Yeah," Satoshi added. "Yeah, that's right! If you knew about the wall, why'd you make us paddle all the way out there?"

"I'm sorry. It wasn't my decision, exactly..."

"Haruka!!" whined Satoshi, rubbing his upper arms. "I am sooo tired because of that!"

She looked away. "I'll, um, let the Chief explain it."

"Soon, right?" pried Shigeru, looking at Haruka's eyes but unable to make contact with them. Instead she stood there with an averted half-smile, playing with one of her hair pieces, and the hair that had gotten wet and come to fall out in parts. It gave him an uncomfortable feeling.

Predictably, Satoshi was the furthest thing from discomfited. He was getting out of the boat and joining Haruka in the water. With her outer tunic floating around her knees, she really made a pretty picture. Satoshi, on the other hand, looked rather like a twice-drowned rat, his hair still damp from the swim earlier and clumpy against his forehead... his cheeks slightly sunburnt and salt-chapped and flushed from excitement, shining.

Shigeru frowned.

He wasn't feeling good at all.

* * *

Being on the shore was as pleasant as it was unsettling. Shigeru felt like he should still be swaying back and forth, rocking with the tide. Instead he felt like a confrontation was boiling between him, Satoshi, and the representatives of the island whose beach they had just come upon.

There were a few awkward niceties. As soon as they were over, Shigeru took control of the conversation.

"I suppose it's nice to meet with you again. But seeing as we just ran into an invisible wall when trying to leave an island that we never meant to be at in the first place, I think we have the right to hear everything right now. Because it is obvious that you know much more than you are willing to tell us, and since we've told you everything we know, you should do the same," said Shigeru. That _did_ seem reasonable enough to Satoshi, and he said so.

"Well, um..." Haruka dithered.

The Chieftain put a hand on Haruka's shoulder, and his shell bracelet clattered noisily. He began speaking to her in a low voice.

Shigeru made a move as if to clear his throat and interrupt, but Satoshi grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him away. "Come on, Shigeru, let's get our boat pulled in. I know that Haruka will tell us everything in just a moment."

"After barbecuing us, maybe," Shigeru grumbled, not really listening.

"Oh come off of it," Satoshi laughed, and shielded his eyes from the setting sun as he looked out towards the vacant, distant sea. "By the way, Shigeru... did you see what happened to our boat? I don't see it anywhere!"

"Huh?" Shigeru took a moment to return to the present. "Well, your first problem is that you're looking in the ocean. I think two of the people who had been helping out the Chief took it ashore."

"And you think that people as helpful as that are planning on eating you?" wondered Satoshi.

"Being helpful is hardly a sign of upright moral character," said Shigeru ominously.

"You're such a cynic."

"So you noticed," replied Shigeru, half-interestedly. His eyes followed the scantily clad men with a bit of quiet appreciation. When they had finished their task of safely dragging the boat away from the shore line, they returned to the group, eying Satoshi and Shigeru with just as much curiosity - and distrust - as they had eyed them.

Upon their arrival, Haruka and the Chieftain finished their conference so abruptly that Shigeru had to keep himself from flinching in surprise.

"We'll tell you everything," the Chief announced. "But, let's sit down first."

"Right here on the beach?" asked Satoshi, looking at the ground with skepticism.

"Of course not," he answered jovially. "You don't think we were standing on the shore, waiting for you for hours, do you?"

Satoshi, Shigeru noticed, was trying to scowl but couldn't quite pull anything off more than a pout. It almost made him feel better.

At the Chief's words, as if having received a direct command, the two guards once again jumped to attention and ran to the edge of the beach where towering hibiscus plants cast long shadows over the white sand. Shigeru immediately noticed a patch of cleared hibiscus, with a basket-woven throne placed in the center. He watched curiously as the the Chief's aides picked up several discarded bamboo poles and stuck them firmly into the ground beside the chair, twisting them deeply into the sandy dirt there.

The sunlight was almost completely faded now.

The group began moving towards the clearing of plants. And then, completely by accident - and unawares - Satoshi stepped on one of the hibiscus flowers. For a split second, Shigeru was certain that blood would appear. It didn't, and he caught his breath.

That, however, Satoshi noticed and his annoyed countenance dropped as he came over to Shigeru's side. "You look kind of pale, Shigeru. Wanna sit down?"

"We were doing that anyway," said Shigeru, averting his eyes to the ground. Fortunately, his eye caught on a sort of grass pillow. He grabbed at it and quickly settled himself on top. The moment he did so, one of the tribesmen was shoving a bowl of hot herbal tea into his hands. Satoshi took a seat beside him and received the same. The silence stretching between the party was steadily approaching awkward, and Shigeru resisted the urge to fidget.

Oblivious as always, or perhaps just truly bored -- Shigeru was hesitant to give him too much credit either way -- Satoshi broached the subject first.

"So..." he began. "What's going on here anyway?"

"Why would you think there's anything 'going on'?" huffed the Chief.

"No need to playact," muttered Shigeru into his tea. He wondered if it was laced with poison. Oh well; too late now.

"Well for starters," Satoshi began, "You don't seem surprised that we're back here even though you told us to leave this morning. You were waiting for us to return tonight, weren't you?"

Haruka at least seemed embarrassed to Shigeru's esteem, but the Chief nodded rather impassively as he replied, "Yes, that's certainly true."

"What!" Satoshi exclaimed. "Why didn't you just say so?"

Haruka patted him consolingly, and Shigeru scowled; the Chief caught it and raised a wiry eyebrow.

"Shigeru-san, if I'm not mistaken, you do not seem to be surprised," surmised the Chief.

"That's because I've figured you out," said Shigeru, affecting his most haughty expression - one he'd learned from the mirror image of the man in front of him now. "You gave us the boat and sent us out as a test. Not-" Shigeru pointed an accusing finger at Satoshi, "- as a physical test, though. You wanted to see if our arrival signified-" he dropped his finger, but sent an accusatory glare at the assembled party in its place, "- to see if our arrival signified that your isolation was over."

Haruka clasped her hands over her mouth, and Satoshi leaned in abruptly towards Shigeru. "Whoa, Shigeru, what--?"

Shigeru, however, paid them no attention; his eyes were locked with the Chief's. The venerable man affected no response to the intimidation tactic, except for murmuring 'what, indeed' as he folded his hands and rested them on his large belly.

"It's true," he said at last. "For many generations, our tribe has made its home on the island of Alph, and Alph alone. Yet since the time of our ancestors, no one has left Alph until the time that they passed on into death and are sent out to sea. The two of you are the first Outsiders to come to us in all of that time. You can imagine our surprise, and our concern. We had come to wonder if there was truly an Outside after all, or if it was a legend."

"You mean you've lived here all your life?" Satoshi gaped. "But it's so ismall/i!"

"Satoshi, you honestly think that would matter to them? They've never known anything else."

"You must understand," interrupted Haruka, bowing her head slightly to the Chief before continuing, "we never pondered the size of Alph or our world too deeply before. It's just that since the two of you have come, we are worried. For the first time, we realize that we've been trapped."

"And now, so are we," said Shigeru, grimly.

Satoshi shivered like he was cold, and rubbed down his forearms quickly. "It's weird," he said distantly, "If we got in somehow, there's got to be a way out..."

"That would make sense, yes," said Haruka thoughtfully.

"What is the reason that Alph became isolated?" Shigeru addressed the Chief suddenly. The dim something that had struck him, in the back of his mind, was coagulating into an idea - a possibility. "Do you know; are there legends or anything?"

"Of a sort. Haruka, perhaps you should best answer that question," said the Chief.

Haruka shifted rather uncomfortably on her cushion as all present company set their eyes upon her. She looked up at the boys rather hesitantly.

"I suppose I should first tell you that my role here, at Alph, is as a priestess-"

"Priestess!?" spluttered Satoshi.

"- and I commune with the Protectors and relay their messages to us."

Again, Satoshi had to interrupt. "Who are the Protectors? What do they do?"

Shigeru cut in before Haruka could answer. "Don't get off track. Answer my question first. Why did this place, this island, become isolated to the point that there is a iwall/i around it?"

"It was made for protection. We wanted safety from enemies, good weather, abundant health, peace, food without famine or farming necessarily..."

"A perfect world," surmised Shigeru. "Admirable, but impossible. There's no such place."

"The legend goes that the protectors could not give us a perfect world, so the Protectors gave us a 'separate' one instead."

"Why does that remind me of something?" Satoshi tapped his chin with his index finger. "I feel like I've heard that before..."

"Because you ihave/i heard it before," said Shigeru. Even as he spoke the words, he realized it was true. He turned his attention to Haruka. "These Protectors you speak of... you say you commune with them. Does anyone else speak to them but you?"

"Not directly; no."

"But they speak to you?"

"Yes, in a way... we_ do _communicate."

"How?"

Haruka flushed, looking distinctly trapped and unsure of what to say. The Chief seemed to give her a very appraising look, as if he knew her thoughts. Not having that luxury, Shigeru folded his arms and filed the moment away for future consideration.

"I go into a trance," said the priestess. "They... show me images. Other times they simply sing."

Satoshi nearly fell all over himself. "Singing!? When the earthquake happened, I remember that there were voices singing!"

Shigeru looked at him for a moment, then locked his eyes with Haruka's. Satoshi made a noise as if affronted by the blatant disregard.

"They don't speak to you with words, do they?" asked Shigeru.

She swallowed. "No..."

"And it's because they can't, isn't it? The Protectors aren't even people. Am I wrong?"

Her lips parted in the shape of a tiny 'no.'

"Wait, then what are they!?" Satoshi cried out.

"They're pokemon." Shigeru's eyes flashed. "Haruka, you don't have to tell me, because I already know. The Protectors aren't people or even gods. They're _pokemon_; and specifically, they're the Unown."

This time, she did not protest at all.

* * *

A short chapter, just so you know that there is more on its way. ;) And the slash. That's going to start, too.


	9. Chapter 9

Thanks for reviewing! It has been so long since the last chapter, I admit to being amazed that some people have kept up with this story at all. ;) Like last time, this chapter is also, sadly unbeta-ed (where is my dear Greenflower?!) but I was hoping you all would be so eager for more that it wouldn't matter very much. I... I thought it turned out pretty good! So please enjoy the next chapter of...

**In Ruins**

* * *

chapter nine

* * *

There hadn't been much to say after Shigeru's shocking announcement. Satoshi, for his part, was trying to better understand the implications of what it meant to be isolated - to be _really isolated_, and not by choice. He had little time to think it over, though; the Chief interrupted that with a clap of his hands and the decision that they should all 'retire to a more pleasant location.' Satoshi could feel the implications in that sentence, even if he couldn't understand it fully. He did get the impression, however, that the Chief's decision from this morning had been over-ruled. He and Shigeru would at least for the time being be allowed to stay at Alph. What a relief!

Satoshi hadn't needed to whistle a full bar of song before Staraptor's great wings appeared in the sky, and the pokemon swooped down and spun out of a neat dive before landing in front of him. It nuzzled the tip of its huge beak in Satoshi's palms.

"It's like Staraptor was waiting for me to call it," Satoshi laughed, mussing the top of its crest.

As the rest of the assembly called their bird pokemon to them, Satoshi was surprised to hear Shigeru voice some amount of gratefulness that Satoshi had 'somehow' obtained his own staraptor. Firstly, the bird was absolutely, frighteningly huge, so both of them could ride it; secondly, Haruka had an Altaria, and he wouldn't be caught dead riding an altaria if he could help it.

But, Satoshi added, "I don't really understand what's wrong with altaria."

Shigeru glanced at him disbelievingly.

"I mean, they're really strong. You've always liked to train strong pokemon, like your Arcanine, Nidoking, Umbreon..."

"Altaria are different," Shigeru protested.

"How?"

"They're just so _fluffy_," exclaimed Shigeru. Satoshi couldn't help laughing, and completely ignored Shigeru's scowl.

"Yeah, I'm not really sure if I can imagine you riding an altaria," he snickered. "But I'd still rather ride an altaria than a delibird."

Shigeru looked over at the chief's lumbering counterpart with a look of hesitant disbelief.

Satoshi at least could understand that; to be honest, he had never even considered riding a delibird. Seriously, up to this point in his life, he had never even seen a delibird who knew the technique 'fly' but everything about Alph was - for a lack of better words - kind of exceptional.

It only took a moment of adjustment, and then Satoshi was seated on Staraptor's back. He felt the heat of the pokemon underneath him, and loved knowing that he could actually control the pokemon from where he sat, even though he was more at the pokemon's mercy than anything. He figured that that was Charizard's influence - getting on the back of the beast for the first time after nearly a year of no respect, no obedience - it had been a heady experience, to say the least.

Shigeru climbed up, and slid behind Satoshi onto the bird's back. Satoshi looked ahead, and saw that Altaria was just taking off, so he began to instruct Staraptor to do the same, but Shigeru was practically fidgeting in his seat. First he was trying to push himself away from Satoshi, but the bird pokemon's wings fluffed behind him and he felt the feathers starting to ruffle in the wrong direction. Satoshi winced for a moment at the agitated 'bawk' that the pokemon gave.

"Hey, come on," he twisted around from his seat and looked at Shigeru as best as he could from the corner of his eye. Shigeru had put his hands in front of him, as if prepared to grasp Satoshi by the waist, but then at the last moment took them back, and rubbed his temples instead.

"Seriously, you'll fall off of Staraptor if you don't hold onto me," said Satoshi.

"With the way you handle pokemon, I'll probably have to hold on for dear life," complained Shigeru, though he did, finally, put his hands on Satoshi's shoulders.

Last time, when Shigeru had taken hold of him, he'd been shaking a little bit. At the time, Satoshi had guessed that he was just in shock from the earthquake, the new 'world'... everything. But he had that restrained sort of shudder again.

_He's afraid of heights, isn't he?_ Satoshi realized. _Who would've guessed?_

He patted Staraptor as close to the top of its head as he could. "Follow Altaria for us, okay?"

The pokemon flapped it wings powerfully several times, lunged forward, and the sand stirred around them.

Then they were flying.

* * *

They were flying, and Shigeru was holding onto Satoshi so tightly that he could feel Satoshi's laughter as they took off, and his legs were clamped against Staraptor's sides, and that was the first moment when he wondered to himself if, maybe, nothing was real.

He didn't voice the thought. Satoshi seemed content enough to hum to himself and not converse, which made Shigeru adverse to mentioning anything at all - at least for the time being. The worry lingered at the back of his mind, and returned to him only briefly as he felt the need to pop his ears upon Staraptor's ascension above the city of Alph.

He hadn't been out at night before, nor had he seen the village from the sky. He wished that he had sooner, for it was beautiful and fascinating. Lanterns hung like a ring of starry constellations encircling the town's edges. Inside homes and spilling from the doorways, the flicker of fire light could just be seen, illuminating but not overwhelming the homes and the city like smog and neon lights. It was like the crisp fall wind for his senses, but to his eyes.

Haruka and Masato rode ahead of them on Altaria, and although they neared the town, they didn't make any moves to descend.

"That's strange," commented Shigeru. "I would've thought that we would attract too much attention by flying bird pokemon into the village. I mean, no one else seems to be doing it."

"Maybe we aren't going into the town. Do you think we're going up to the Mountain again?" Satoshi wondered.

"You mean that rocky outcropping? I doubt it. That would be far too dangerous for us to take off or land from at night."

"I don't know about that. Staraptor have great night vision," said Satoshi.

"But delibird don't... And think about what it would be like with all of us piled up there. I doubt there'd be much space."

Satoshi nodded his agreement and shifted his weight forward, more up against Staraptor's neck. He sighed. "I wonder if we're going to a party."

"You're always wondering; you're so impatient," said Shigeru, rolling his eyes. Then, he actually paused to think of what Satoshi had said to him. "A... party?"

"Yeah, like a festival or something. Don't you see that place with all the lanterns and people?"

Shigeru _hadn't_. He'd been too busy thinking about stars and home, and Satoshi was looking over his shoulder at him and grinning.

"You were staring off into space again, weren't you?"

"Was not. Besides, what do you mean 'again'!?"

"You always used to do that when we were kids. You think too much."

"Better than thinking too little," he sputtered.

Satoshi turned back around, but not before Shigeru could see his fondly upturned smile.

Staraptor chose the next moment to keen out a cry, and suddenly swooped down, jolting both of them into holding on tightly. It swung above the crowded town plaza for a full circuit before landing right outside the edge of it, on a long, oddly painted roof. Haruka, Masato, and Altaria were on top of the building already, standing by in wait.

As they dismounted Staraptor, Shigeru took a moment to look around him. The flat rooftop had a flooring composed of packed dirt and clay, with bright colored stone work near the staircase, which must lead to the second and ground floors of the building. The other roofs nearby had a similar shape, though generally smaller and more square. Nor were they lit up with torches like this one. However, all of the panorama of the town felt festive and bright, even in the middle of night; though maybe that was due to the golden light of lanterns on the street below, and the shadow castings of people walking there.

Shigeru wanted to walk over to the edge of the roof top and peak down at the people below, but he could hear Satoshi, Haruka, and Masato talking, so he turned to them instead.

" - but I don't know how we'll repay you," Satoshi was finishing.

"Repay what?" echoed Shigeru.

Masato didn't seem to have heard Shigeru enter the conversation. "Would you just take the clothes and not complain about it?"

"I'm not complaining," argued Satoshi. "I just-"

Shigeru's brow furrowed. "What are you even talking about?"

Masato spun around and pointed a finger at Shigeru. "If you don't know, you should be paying attention!"

Shigeru was easily a full head taller than Masato. He had no problem emphasizing this fact by folding his arms and looking down at the green-haired boy with a glare.

"Want to try saying that again?" he growled.

"Shigeru," Haruka weakly cut in, "We - that is, Masato, myself, and the Chief - recognize that the two of you will be staying in Alph for a while. Our village will be holding a festival tonight, and we were hoping that the two of you might be interested in coming."

"Of course," said Shigeru. He hadn't been expecting to hear that, and wasn't adverse to the idea. He liked festivals - always had. "Satoshi, were you seriously not interested in going?"

"What? No! I wanna go to the festival!!" he protested.

"Then what's the problem?"

"He won't wear our clothes," Masato sneered. Shigeru looked and, sure enough, there was a pile of folded clothes in Masato's arms.

"There's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing!" Satoshi pulled at his shirt emphatically.

"Your clothes are weird," said Masato.

"I think that the other people in our village might accept the two of you more easily if you wear something that stands out a bit less," said Haruka, kindly. "Is that okay?"

"Yeah," Shigeru nodded. "But I see Satoshi's point. We've been intruding on your kindness a lot lately and haven't been able to do anything for you in return.."

"We can worry about that later," said Haruka. She took the clothes from her brother's hands and passed them to Shigeru. "Would you go to the second floor to try them on? We'll meet you on the first floor when you're finished changing."

"Sure," said Shigeru. "Satoshi?"

With a parting glare at Masato - one that Shigeru certainly felt was deserved - Satoshi answered.

"Fine. Let's go," he said, and strode to the door. Shigeru followed, breathing out a sigh of relief. Finally, a change of clothes! A bath would be nice too, but this would be enough for now. He'd do anything to get out of his dirty work clothes - and if it meant wearing a scratchy tunic and trousers, then so be it. The garments weren't that bad really, and Shigeru liked the dusty purple color of his top. His loosely fit trousers were an unsurprising shade of tan. They only could be seen from the top of his knees and down. With the brown belt encircling his torso, over his tunic, and a long tan coat over that, Shigeru imagined that he must look really similar to anyone else who would be in the village. He would find out soon enough.

"So... I heard about a festival?" he ventured, his back turned from Satoshi as he slipped off his shirt.

"That's right!" said Satoshi, happily. "It sounds like so much fun."

"I thought you were tired." _And mad at Masato_, he added internally.

"Just my arms. So if there's any big drums, I guess I won't be hitting them with the other villagers." Satoshi pressed down his shirt to fix the pleating around his belt. "I hope there's food."

"It wouldn't be a festival without it," said Shigeru. "Or at least not a good one. Did Haruka or Masato tell you what the festival is for?"

"Nope! But it doesn't matter. I'm really excited to meet some of the people here."

Shigeru was puzzled. "Really? Why?"

"Well..." Satoshi pulled a thoughtful expression. "I keep seeing people I recognize. Obviously, you know about Haruka, Masato, and your, err, grandfather. But earlier this morning I'm pretty sure that I saw Kasumi and Takeshi - I traveled with them a long time, you know - and I was hoping to talk to them. Maybe."

"Just a guess, but judging from what we've seen so far, they're not going to be like the people you knew back home," warned Shigeru.

"I want to know how much they're different," said Satoshi stubbornly. Shigeru shrugged his shoulders and went back to idly studying the wall as Satoshi finished changing.

However, Satoshi wasn't done talking.

"Shigeru," he began, hesitantly. "When I said that the story of Alph was familiar, earlier, what did you think I was talking about?"

"Greensfield. And the whole incident with Entei, and Molly, of course," Shigeru immediately replied. "After all, she asked the Unown for a world with just 'momma, poppa, and me;' where no one could bother her. Alph's isolation sounds like the same sort of thing, doesn't it? It's another world where no one can bother it... but at a cost."

Satoshi silently ran his hands over his folded clothes.

"The truth was, I wasn't thinking of that. I was thinking... I was kind of thinking of myself."

Shigeru's mouth opened. "Are you serious?"

"Well, yeah. It was sort of natural to," said Satoshi defensively.

"Natural?" Shigeru asked, flummoxed. If Satoshi immediately thought of himself _in the middle of a crisis encompassing a whole town,_ he couldn't be anything but incredibly self-centered. Maybe being self-centered was natural, but to be that self-absorbed.... really? Satoshi didn't seem really vain. He always helped people. And pokemon. And stuff like that.

"Why did you think of yourself?" Shigeru finally managed, turning around.

"Well, because it's kind of ironic, you know," replied Satoshi. "The whole reason I came to Alph was to see you. But I didn't really want to leave my house in the first place. My mom kicked me out. She said I was using her house as a barrier to the rest of the world. But as luck would have it, I'm isolated anyway. I guess that fate has got some reason for it."

Shigeru couldn't think of anything to say. All he could seem to do was stare at the place where Satoshi's hands were still adjusting the fabric at his waist. He wished he could look at Satoshi's face instead, but as he couldn't bring himself to, he waited for the moment to pass. Soon enough they were being urged downstairs, and there was plenty else to mull over. The conversation was quickly buried in the back of his mind.

* * *

Satoshi had never been very observant, to Shigeru's estimation, and that's probably why Satoshi wasn't usually right about things. But he had been right about their odds of meeting new, yet familiar people at the festival.

As soon as they had walked into the busy plaza with Haruka and Masato, they had been the focus of a lot of quiet, huddled conversations. Thankfully, while he and Satoshi had changed clothes, the Chief had already made a sort of announcement about their presence in the village - and that they would be staying for a while. Most of the expressions were hesitantly accepting and wondrous rather than combative and/or afraid.

After weaving through a bit of people, most of whom had been staring at them already and were thus more than happy to clear themselves from the path of traffic, Masato came to a sudden halt. Haruka instructed them to sit down on a rectangle of ground covered with grass mat. and quickly they were surrounded by a mass of food; spicy pastry, roasted meats, seed and nuts, cornmeal, persimmon, shell soup... Satoshi obviously didn't know where to start, so he took everything he could reach. Shigeru snorted at it, but picked up and poured about the same amount of food onto his own dish as Satoshi was doing. It _had _been a long day, and although he had gotten breakfast, he'd skipped lunch -- and they hadn't eaten dinner the night before.

Screw it, he was starving. He ladled even more food than Satoshi did onto his plate.

"This festival begins with an opening dance to thank the Protectors," said Haruka, as if the topic were not completely a non-sequitur.

"So there are other festivals?" asked Shigeru. "Then what is this one for?"

She didn't seem to hear him, having already risen to her feet and begun addressing someone else who was seated nearby and opposite to them. Shigeru sighed and continued with his food.

After a few minutes, Haruka took her seat near them. The plaza quieted. It was probably Shigeru's imagination, but it seemed as if the lanterns had been dimmed. All of the village people - young, old, whatever - had formed a wide circle around the bonfire wood, leaving maybe twenty feet of distance between themselves and it.

"Look - there! In the sky!" Satoshi swallowed his food quickly, as he pointed upwards. Shigeru realized that all of the people around him were doing the same thing, and he peered into the sky as well. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, and in doing so, he registered some sort of moving light among the stars.

"What is that?" Shigeru wondered aloud.

It seemed as if he were watching twin stars shot out from heaven. Then, after adjusting his eyes, he could see instead that the two points of lights were not falling through the sky as much as they were dancing through it -- _quickly,_ no question that it was happening at a rapid speed, but not as rapid or sharply as comets. After a few seconds further, however, he realized that the spots of fire were not only growing, but circling each other in ever close orbit, like satellites of some invisible force in the vividly dark night sky.

He and Satoshi realized at the same time:

"They're people!"

The outline of their bodies, and their stratospheric dance partner pokemon were lit by the glow of the torches in their hands. They only slowed in their ascent once they came about 40 feet from the ground. Midair, with their feet hanging off of their bird pokemon in elegant folds, they stilled -- and so did their audience.

Then the two figures reached out to each other with their free hands, linking them; in that instant they dropped both of their torches above the center of the circle... and the kindle-wood below crashed into light. The Skarmory beat their wings and let out shrill cries at the sudden influx of heat; Shigeru's heart beat rapidly in his chest. The soulful, draw-out notes of a reed pipe played by someone down below wrenched straight inside of him and squeezed his soul painfully, and he had no idea why.

The flames had spread out to consume the edges of the bonfire wood, casting a stronger glow than any of the lanterns had before. The performers, now nearly a few feet above the ground, leapt from their side-saddles off of the birds (which in the half-light of the fire, looked very much like a pair of Skarmory) and landed in the middle of the cleared circle. The pipe's music continued to undulate and the two people who had come from the sky -- they were clearly girls, Shigeru could see that from the length of their undressed hair, the shape of their bare midriffs, and their skirts -- were closing their eyes in preparation for something.

Shigeru was still reeling from their arrival, and the sudden burst of flame. But they only delayed a moment before the music shifted to an introductory sort of sound. A song began, and with the song, a dance.

He couldn't compare it to the traditional dances he had grown up with in Masara town, or seen on the mainland; it was a far cry from the slow, elegant, elongated and practiced movements of a fan dance. This was unpolished, tribal -- a somehow more genuine expression of feeling. What feeling, Shigeru couldn't say for sure.

First it was just a movement of their ankles, and their feet, lifting up quickly as if they were on a bed of hot coals. Rather than see it, he could feel the girls' close-lipped smiles and glittering, playful eyes as they began to move with the rhythm of drums.

Shimmying their shoulders and hips into the center of the circle, they spread out around the ever-brighter glowing bonfire. The pace of their dancing was fast and the motions of their many bangled and braceleted hands was - almost cute, even boyish, which seemed strange considering that their clothing_was_ meant to accentuate their figures. Their energy, though, was entrancing as the fire they had dropped in the center of the circle. As if by being warmed internally, the pulsing drums, the soulful pipes, and the charming, beckoning dancers pushed forward from the fire a tangible and present change in the very character of Alph itself. Very soon Shigeru heard clapping from all sides - and the villagers were rising to their feet. Satoshi and Shigeru joined them.

When one of the girls came closer to them, and they began to sing as they danced, Shigeru could see her face. She didn't seem any older than fourteen, even with the shimmering powder around her eyes.

As she flitted away, Shigeru asked Satoshi if she looked familiar.

"I don't recognize her - not any of them, I think," Satoshi replied. He was clapping merrily with everyone else. Even Shigeru realized that he, too, had joined in perfunctorily without even realizing.

Then, abruptly, the music changed, and the drums took rest; the girls retreated to the sides, like shadows of flames, and waiting.

_She_ appeared to him at first from the other side of the bonfire, her back to them; as she rose, her arms came out from her in a languid motion, but with sudden flicks of her wrists as they reached full extension. She rose to her feet like a snake unwinding. Her hips swirled in a slow circle. Her outfit was different, that was immediately clear; rather than being suggestive like the younger dancers', her scanty garments were provocative. Her skirt had a slit exposing her full leg from both sides. Her top was not much better; but more surprising than that was her face.

Shigeru _knew_ this woman.

"Hikari," he stated, more than asked. "Hikari is here."

"Wow, I wouldn't have expected that! I mean, you're right, but..." Satoshi's voice was incredulous as he looked at the illusion of his childhood friend.

She was approaching them, each striding step of her dance reminiscent of a predator stalking its prey; as if she knew that they were discussing her and intended to meet them eye to eye to demand explanation, or some sort of tribute.

He broke away from the connection of the dance to his soul just long enough to glance at Satoshi from the side. The boy was watching her, too. In the darkness, and with the strong light from the fire extending the shadows over them both, it was difficult to read anything other than surprise in Satoshi's face. Shigeru returned his stare to Hikari.

The sparks of fire and ash shot out from the crackling wood behind her, reflecting in the jewels of her rings and the chains in her hair, and in her eyes. Shigeru wasn't straight, but he wasn't an idiot. In her eyes, a passion burnt, threatening to spill out with every writhing motion of her body. The suggestive pauses in the music of the reed pipe gave him the immediate impression of a snake charming its prey, preparing to pounce-- and even if it didn't make him long for sex with_ her,_ he couldn't help thinking of sex, and how very much he was in want of it.

He felt his face flushing with heat and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

As she paused her dance in front of them, and the music made the audience whistled and clapped. Satoshi also clapped appreciatively- but didn't seemed moved by it in the least.

"It's a really pretty dance," said Satoshi.

"Unbelievable," muttered Shigeru. "You are unbelievable."

Hikari seemed to agree, and as the music changed again, she joined the two younger girls in a lighter-hearted dance, but with a sort of pout evidenced in her face and attitude. It was petty, but Shigeru felt kind of smug after watching her get completely brushed off by the impossibly oblivious Satoshi. He was glad that he wasn't the only one whose motives Satoshi had completely misunderstood.

When the show, performance, or whatever-it-was had concluded, the music didn't. The lanterns flared to life again, and the townspeople collectively resumed their positions from earlier, crowding and wandering around each other animatedly. Shigeru looked around for direction of some sort, but Haruka and Masato were no longer beside them. Their platters of food were gone, too, which Shigeru found to be at least equally regrettable.

Satoshi had already started making new friends in Haruka and Masato's absence, and one of them offered him and Shigeru a cup of rice wine. Shigeru wasn't as eager for their friendship as he was for the drink. Rather than trying for one rather than the other, Shigeru poured the alcohol down his throat and received a congenial slap on the back for doing so. He showed the couple an effort for friendship by giving them a quick, tight-lipped smile, and took another proffered wine off of their tray gladly. He looked at the couple, trying to pin down why they seemed familiar, but gave up quickly, content to be lost in his own thought and observation.

A large number of the townspeople were dancing now around the fire - it wasn't the sort of sensual dance like Haruka's and her partners had been, but the regular festival fare: free-footed, cheerful, simply choreographed dance.

"Shigeru, why aren't you dancing?" Satoshi asked, unexpectedly. Satoshi shifted where he stood and folded his arms.

"It's not like I _have_ to."

"I disagree," said Haruka, now returned and at Satoshi's side, beckoning as well. "Come on!"

"I can't dance," he said, his lips curling.

"That's such a lie!" said Satoshi. "I remember when you were eleven and your grandfather made you take ballroom lessons! You made me practice with you because I was shorter!"

Shigeru winced. "Satoshi..."

Satoshi seemed to be mistaking his embarrassment for modesty, because he continued, "Don't let him tell you anything different, because he's really good!"

"Really, Shigeru? If you danced that well when you were a child, you must be an even better dancer now," insisted Haruka. "It would be a shame not to join in the dancing."

Shigeru strained his neck to see over some of the crowds. "I'm going to go get some more wine," he declared, and brushed by the duo rather furiously.

By the time he returned, having had two more drinks in his absence, he was surprised to find that Haruka and Satoshi were not only still standing together, but a third person had joined their conversation. Even from behind, Shigeru could recognize Hikari immediately, mainly because the light of the bonfire glowed on the naked skin of her back and caught on the jewelry that dangled there.

As if that weren't strange enough, kind and sort of shy Haruka was like a thing transformed; from the drink, maybe, but he couldn't say for sure until Satoshi turned away for a moment, and he saw Haruka neatly hook the dancer with an elbow in the side. Hikari's breath caught and she faltered backward, while Haruka smiled innocently at Satoshi. Though if he wasn't mistaken, Haruka had a sort of_ smirk _and he wondered if there was some sort of bad blood between her and Hikari. This was quickly answered by Hikari stomping her foot on Haruka's the very next moment Satoshi was distracted.

Through it all, both of the girls continued in conversation with the (impossibly) oblivious Satoshi, donning two equally strained smiles. He listened in for a moment before he realized that they were arguing over whom would be whose partner.

"You can go on and dance," Shigeru cut in. "I wasn't planning on dancing. I'll stay here."

"Are you sure?" asked Satoshi. "I mean, since both Haruka and Hikari are here, we can all dance together-"

"He doesn't want to dance, so I'll just spend my time teaching _you_," said Hikari, her emphasis heavy on the final word. She took Satoshi by the wrist and led him forward into the crowd of dancers. Haruka looked at Shigeru for a moment, not exactly apologetic, but a bit she stormed after Satoshi and Hikari.

Shigeru looked down and saw Satoshi's abandoned wine cup near his fit. Upon discovering that it wasn't yet empty, he finished it off.

By the next set of music, the sky and the ground was dancing around him, as well as the people. It had been that third and a half cup that had brought Shigeru into a haze of intoxication, just strong enough to make him unsure of his footing but not so much that he had lost his footing altogether.

_Which is strange,_ he thought, the words streaming through his brain so quickly that he could barely process it,_ It's so strange that my leg hasn't folded beneath me yet._

He frowned. Looking down at it, especially in the darkness with glowing, festive light, there wouldn't seem to be anything wrong with his leg; it looked just like any other person's appendage except that it acted like it had a mind of its own and wouldn't let him do anything. It wouldn't let him stay in any position - squatting, standing, flexing - for too long before it shot searing pain up him; he always had a bit of a limp because of it. He certainly couldn't even stand up like this for very long before needing to sit down.

Shigeru rubbed his forehead, realizing that there was a light sheen of perspiration there. _I must be really drunk not to feel anything in his leg. That could be really serious. What if - what if I overworked it so badly that I wouldn't be able to walk again without too much pain for, for a week?_

He glanced around, checking that no one was paying too much attention to him, then pinched his arm as tightly as he could. He felt it, definitely; though he noticed that he was feeling it a bit later than was probably healthy, and the feeling reminded him a bit of trying to speak after going to visit a dentist and having part of his mouth numbed.

It was a little unsettling, so Shigeru tried again; the result remained the same. But that didn't make sense. If he was able to feel his arm all right, why couldn't he feel his leg?

He grit his teeth and reached down; he pinched his calf.

After a moment, he realized that it hurt, so he let go.

And after another moment, he realized that his pinch had hurt, but that was all that was hurting. He realized that on the walk up the mountain this morning, and when he had been sitting in that half-squat while rowing the boat, he had had no pain.

The sting from the pinch had already faded, and he realized that he had no pain.

It confused him to accept that his pain - the pain that never left him - was gone; if he were to look at his leg, there would be no scar, as if he had never been in the hospital; as if the course of his life hadn't been changed when he was fifteen years old. And that was impossible.

Shigeru knew it. The worry he had experienced on Staraptor's back wasn't the product of some stupid, idle thought. This place - whatever it was; these people - whoever they were --_ None of it was real._

And knowing it set him free.

It was as if the pain in his leg had been a stick in a stream; with it dislodged, something in his heart had broken loose from a flood of feeling. The music pulsed around him, consumed him when it had only just glanced off of him before; he stepped forward and his feet were moving, moving without him, he was shaking off his outer tunic and he felt like he was being lifted from the ground though his feet were still touching it. He entered the throng of dancers around the fire. He hadn't chosen to, but it had just happened, and he let himself be lost in the horde of moving people. People, drinks passed by him; he reached out to take one, and sloshed the red wine in his cup and threw it back. Some of the droplets missed his mouth, and he wiped his face with the edge of his hand, and -

- and saw Satoshi, looking at him with an awestruck expression, standing still in a crowd of moving people.

"Satoshi!" he called out friendlily, and strode through the dancers to reach him in seconds.

"Wh-what!?" Satoshi looked at Shigeru with an eyebrow quirked, and his arms hanging awkward in confusion. "What? I thought -"

Shigeru leaned up to Satoshi, cupping his mouth as he spoke into his ear: "Let's dance!"

"Yeah- sure!!" Satoshi said, though before he had even finished speaking, Shigeru had grasped Satoshi's wrist, and laughed as he spun Satoshi into a twirl.

He could see Haruka and Hikari dimly at the edge of his vision, but they weren't important. He was centered on Satoshi, pulled in by the boy's dancing and centered on his shocked but happy face. _That_ was important.

The dance was ridiculous and it was like freedom. Shigeru threw himself around, pantomimed Satoshi as much as the other villagers in the dance, sometimes clapping his hands together, sometimes shouting with everyone in perfect unison - and like the other villagers around them, spun around once or twice and bumbled through the steps. Though maybe Shigeru messed up his steps a fair bit deal more than the other villagers. He couldn't see straight enough to tell, but he could see Satoshi and since he didn't seem to care if they were doing the dance wrong or not, then it didn't matter, did it?

This was freedom; this was happiness; he was happy - had he ever been so happy before? _No, it was impossible._

When the dance ended, and the next one threatened to begin, Satoshi grinned widely and punched him jokingly in the arm. He seemed to be yelling something over the din of the music and the people but Shigeru couldn't hear it, especially not when his own laughter was adding to the noise. He kept dancing.

And Shigeru wondered at the irony of how nothing had ever felt more real in his entire life.

* * *

The next morning broke over the town, the sun streaming its hot and unfiltered rays through windows without curtains or shades.

Shigeru woke up with a direct patch of the light creeping across him. As he rested, fully extended on his pallet, he breathed in deeply and felt his warm bones. He could feel his muscles laying loosely on them, soft like water streaming over smoother rocks. Like rivulets of water at the banks of a widened stream, his consciousness trickled to the ends of his digits and his thumbs. He felt a smile float onto his face like a leaf - and then it passed on its way, and his awareness smoothed out. As he swirled into the current of his life again, he could feel the granules of sand inbetween his toes. He didn't mind.

He opened his eyes and light flooded in.

Satoshi lay sprawled out across the blanket beside him, and his arm was thrown out onto Shigeru's space. Shigeru wasn't sure why Satoshi was sleeping next to him, but it didn't matter anymore, did it?

Shigeru took Satoshi's hand and interwove it with his own. He smiled at their joined fingers, and the contrast of Satoshi's tanner skin, then dropped the boy's hand and got up from his bed.

He faced the window and looked out at the crisp blue sky, and he could not keep a contented hum from escaping his throat.

* * *

_ Next chapter: Satoshi's P.O.V., plus the return of Tano! And pottery. Please don't forget to review!  
_


	10. Chapter 10

Oh my reviewers, how I love you! You inspire me to greater and greater heights, and depths, and... Bath house episodes. Yes, you heard me correctly. I love you so much that I have made this chapter all about Satoshi and Shigeru in the bath. Together. _En flagrante nuddiepants _and surreptitiously looking at each other. I hope you enjoy it and don't get nosebleeds!

**in ruins**

**

* * *

**chapter ten

* * *

When Satoshi woke up, he couldn't believe that he was in bed.

He felt less like he was underneath bed covers and more like he had been trampled by a stampeding herd of Tauros, and had been left to bake in the desert sun and die. The achey soreness spanned everywhere he could think of; his arms, his legs, his abs. He tried to remember the last time he had felt this way and he knew it had been years.

And then he noticed the sand. In his mouth, in his ears, under his fingernails... was there anywhere it hadn't gotten into? He raised his arm, experimentally. Bad idea -- he threw his hand over his nose and began to cough.

He stank. No, that was an understatement. He absolutely _reeked._

Satoshi didn't usually pay much attention to how often he bathed, but obviously something was off; when he thought about it, even recently he hadn't exactly been regularly bathing or anything (every what? three days? he was on schedule, then), but in the past three days he'd had a lot of exercise, hadn't he?

The events of the previous night and the previous day seeped into his awareness. Just the day before he had been hiking up a mountain, rowing an old boat into the horizon, dancing nearly the whole night...? It was amazing he was able to wake up at all.

His stomach growled, and Satoshi accepted that maybe his gut had something to do with him waking.

He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands, and yawned.

A voice from across the room drifted over. "Good morning."

Satoshi's eyes widened and he jerked himself around. About eight feet away, Shigeru sat in front of the fire, warming his hands. A pot of boiling water was nestled on a rock in the middle of the flames. He was dressed in the same clothes from the night before. And, he was smiling.

Smiling?

Satoshi warily replied, "Good morning..."

With very slow, purposeful movement (as if he were dealing with a wild Pokemon) Satoshi got out of bed and inched to the side opposite of his smiling room-mate. He sat there dim with sleep, quietly trying to process Shigeru's mood while overcoming the sense of deadness in every limb of his body.

"I'm heating the water for some tea. You can have some if you'd like," explained Shigeru. "It would be a nicer way to wake up; though not as much as a bath."

"Oh good," said Satoshi. "I really need to bathe."

Shigeru wrinkled his nose. "I noticed."

Before Satoshi could defend himself, Shigeru continued with nonchalance, "Kidding. I really need to bathe, too. My skin is sticky, and my hair is greasy, and it's gross. I figured you would want to come as well, that's all."

"Yeah, sure, I guess I need a bath too," said Satoshi. He shook his head, tried to focus his eyes but gave up. Instead he felt his memory of the night before playing before him again (and to be honest, his memory was a bit hazy. What had been in that wine, anyway?). At the time he had thought Shigeru had been drinking - it was obvious from the red on his cheeks when they were dancing. But it was weird that Shigeru didn't seem to have a hang-over, and it was weird that he wasn't grumpy from all the exercise that they'd had yesterday. And he was _still _being nice, and acting happy.

"Shigeru..." Satoshi fished for the right words, and not finding them, just began to speak: "You do realize that you're actually being nice to me today."

"Mm-hmm."

Satoshi's eye twitched. "So? What's going on?"

"Nothing's going on," said Shigeru, reaching into a satchel of tea leaves and spreading them across the top of the water. He began to stir, and inhaled the scent of the tea; a distant smile appeared on his face.

"Seriously, are you feeling okay?"

He sighed. "I'm fine. But if I've been such a jerk to you, you really shouldn't be concerned about me one way or another."

A trace of a sneer appeared on Shigeru's face. "So I should be the one asking you, shouldn't I? ...Are _you _okay?"

"I'm fine! Shut up!" Satoshi declared, folded his arms and stuck out his bottom lip.

Shigeru just laughed. When he smiled, it reached his eyes.

Satoshi didn't know why, but seeing it, his heart started beating faster.

He was still pouting about Shigeru's mood swing when the grass curtain at the doorway rattled, and Masato had arrived with food in hand.

Finally, something seemed to have put a dent into Shigeru's good mood. Satoshi decided that he would give this strange Masato a second chance; at least he was restoring the status quo.

"Good morning," Satoshi said to him.

"Oh, you're already up," replied Masato, grouchily. Then he sniffed his nose. "God, what's that smell?"

Shigeru looked around himself, then finally, shrugged.

"It's probably us," Shigeru told him matter-of-factly.

"I hadn't showered since before I arrived," Satoshi pointed out. "It's been maybe four days..."

Masato shuddered in obvious revulsion.

"I brought you some breakfast, but you really need to bathe. This is revolting. Do you bathe where you're from?"

"Yes! We're not neanderthals!" said Satoshi, clenching his fists (so much for giving Masato a second chance).

"Well like it or not, you're going to have to bathe more often than you're doing it. You're going to leave a permanent stench in this house," Masato sniffed, muttering the last part. Satoshi made eye contact with Shigeru, hoping that the older boy would stick up for them, but instead he just raised his hands in the air in an apparently 'helpless' gesture.

Shigeru addressed Masato, "You're right. We are absolutely, disgustingly filthy. Is there any way we can get clean?"

It took Satoshi a little while to realize that Shigeru's overly kind voice was actually latent with quiet mockery. Masato realized it a lot faster, though, and said stiffly, "Forget breakfast; you can eat it on the way to the bath house."

Satoshi and Shigeru looked at each other, then at Masato.

"Are you... expecting something from us?" wondered Satoshi.

"Yes!" Masato exclaimed. "I want you to get up, and let's go right now. I don't have all day."

With a dramatic huff, he exited the building. Shigeru and Satoshi followed him to the door, where they slipped into their sandals, which were apparently one-size-fits-all. Satoshi's pair fit him perfectly, but Shigeru's heels stuck out of his. As Shigeru crammed his foot into his shoe, he murmured to Satoshi, "I wonder, what _does_ Masato do all day?"

"Probably whine at people," Satoshi immediately answered, which made Shigeru laugh.

Then they went outside, too, and didn't even have time to adjust their eyes to the light before Masato began walking away with an authoritative step. Shigeru rolled his eyes and sidled up to him and received some rice cakes for the effort. He tossed one to Satoshi, who as soon as he caught it, began to eat with avid interest.

"Hey, Masato-kun," said Shigeru. "So that was your house, right? I've been wondering, since we're staying there, where are you and Haruka staying?"

Masato gave Satoshi an exasperated look. For once, though, it didn't seem directed at Satoshi or Shigeru, but at some unseen assailant.

"We're staying with Hikari," said Masato, frowning.

Shigeru chuckled. "Ah," he said.

"What?" asked Satoshi, aware that Shigeru had just gained some sort of information, but completely unsure of what it could possibly be. Masato ignored him and turned to Shigeru - whom, in Masato's eyes, being able to understand him, was also available for commiseration with him.

"It's terrible," said the green-headed boy, his voice low. "They never stop yelling at each other, or playing mean pranks on each other...Not even at night. I can barely sleep."

"No wonder you hate us," said Shigeru, obviously amused. Satoshi was the furthest thing from amused. He was horrified.

"I don't understand," he said, thinking back on the previous night, and years prior. "I thought that their personalities were conducive to an easy friendship, somehow..."

"Not at all," said Masato. "Or, I don't know, maybe their personalities aren't too different, but I think that Hikari's just jealous of Haruka for being the priestess. She's in a sort of secondary role as ceremonial leader - but she doesn't get to speak with the Unown. But Haruka kind of hates Hikari because she thinks that Hikari is more beautiful. Anyway, it's just a big misunderstanding but it's been going on so long that I don't think they could ever be friends."

Shigeru for the first time looked at Masato in a way that didn't seem condescending in the least. "You _are_ observant," he stated.

"Duh," said Masato, waving him off. "Anyway, we're here. It wasn't that far, obviously."

Satoshi looked above Masato's head, and sure enough, over the door of the building, a banner with the characters for 'hot water' waved gently in the air.

"I have an errand to do, so I'm going to leave. When you're done, I'll probably be waiting for you out here. If I'm not, just stay put."

Shigeru waved him off. "Have fun," he said to Masato's retreating figure, half-serious.

Satoshi took the lead and walked through the fabric curtain and into the staging area of the bathroom. It was a small room with cubbies covering an entire wall.

"You know, this reminds me a lot of the hot springs back home," said Satoshi.

"Seriously? You must go to a lot of cheap hot springs, then," Shigeru replied. Satoshi was about to gripe but then he realized that, although the words had been mean, Shigeru's tone was simply commentating and not sneering or anything. Satoshi tried to continue as if nothing in that was odd at all.

"So, the clothes we're wearing right now might have gotten a bit dirty last night," Satoshi noted, as he slipped off his shirt and bent over to place it in an empty cubby. He could feel Shigeru's eyes on him. When he turned to make eye contact, though, Shigeru was resolutely focusing on his own clothes.

"I think that most people here do their own laundry, probably every day or so. We will probably just wash these tonight to wear again tomorrow."

"Really?" asked Satoshi, pausing as he undid his belt. "So you think that these will be the only clothes you and I will be getting?"

"Clothes used to be expensive commodities, you know," said Shigeru. "It takes a long time to make them in the old-fashioned way... that is, the way that the people of Alph have to make them."

Shigeru raised an eyebrow and smiled. Even though Shigeru wasn't looking directly at him, it was nerve-wracking.

"Are you concerned about messing up your clothes?" asked Shigeru, "I mean, if you ruin you clothes, you'll probably have to go naked."

"_Shut up! _That's not funny!" Satoshi replied. Shigeru laughed - he had obviously not been serious - but Satoshi was still blushing, and he did have _some_ pride and didn't want Shigeru to know that he'd been successfully baited.

Satoshi took off his last layer of clothes, grabbed his hand towel, and only looked over his shoulder briefly to make sure that Shigeru was coming, too, before entering the bathing room.

The ceiling was vaulted a little higher than it was in the changing area. Two large wooden support beams were stretched across the ceiling. Steam rose and swirled up through them and rested hazily at the highest limits of the room. Also made by wood were two large pools of water, side by side, but one larger than the other. Two old men sat quietly across from each other in the larger one. Satoshi looked at the water basins, curiously. Were they really made of cedar? And how in the world did people who lived on an island have access to _cedar trees?_

Satoshi bit his lip as he stood there, considering them; the moisture-thick air began to capture on his skin and he could even feel a bit of it dripping down the curve of his back.

"Satoshi." Shigeru stood behind him, at the wall, with his hand on a water faucet. "You're going to rinse off before you get in, aren't you? Or are you_ really_ a neanderthal?"

He smirked as he turned on the water with a twist of his wrist.

"I didn't know if they rinsed off before they bathed," Satoshi protested. "I was just trying to figure it out, okay?!"

Shigeru looked up at Satoshi with an expression that usually Satoshi would've interpreted as _You're an idiot, _but for some reason it didn't seem too serious.

Choosing for once to ignore Shigeru's teasing as much as possible, Satoshi went up to the water tap beside Shigeru, and filled up one of the bathing pots with water, and taking a deep breath, dunked it over his head.

"Woah!" he exclaimed. "It's not cold!"

"I guess they heat it with fire pokemon," said Shigeru, shrugging as he lathered himself with an oddly shaped grey bar of soap. Satoshi stared at the soap bar for several moments, somehow mystified by it, and by the way that Shigeru rolled it over his biceps, before he caught himself in surprise. He returned his attention to his own faucet, pot, and soap, and finished getting clean.

The two elderly villagers left the water several minutes later. By the time Satoshi and Shigeru were done cleaning off several days' grime, the room was their own.

* * *

Satoshi had always liked taking hot springs baths. The bath house of Alph didn't get its water from a hot spring, but in Satoshi's mind it definitely made no difference. The water from the faucet had been warm, true, but the water in the pools was hot enough to burn him. It wasn't bad, though. If anything, it was a controlled burn; a cleansing one, a satisfying one. As soon as his feet dipped into the water, he let himself slide in all the way to the top of his neck and melt.

"_Oh.. wow... It feels so good_," sighed Satoshi.

Shigeru moaned agreeably, settling deeper into the water in the opposite pool. They both sat there in a gentle, rolling sort of silence after that. Eventually Satoshi's face began to lightly perspire and he lifted some of the bath water to his lips and drank it.

And then, Satoshi's tongue was loosened like all the other muscles in his body had been. That was his excuse for breaking the comfortable silence, barely even knowing what he was going to say before he said it.

"Shigeru..." he asked. "Why did you dance with me last night?"

For a while he could only hear his own breathing, and maybe Shigeru's, but he couldn't be sure if he was just imagining it over the sound of the water steadily pouring into the tubs.

"I felt like it," said Shigeru finally.

"Really?"

"Mmhmm."

Satoshi blinked up at the rafters and felt questions vying for his attention, but they were as hazy as the steam from the water. Finally he was able to choose one. "Why are you so different today?" he asked.

"Because I'm happy now," said Shigeru, and it was completely honest - he could hear it in Shigeru's voice.

Satoshi stretched his limbs out in the water, letting the tension out of his legs. They dropped for a moment, then floated to the surface of the tub. He watched the water ripple around his kneecaps as they peeked out, followed by his lower legs. The way that the water moved made him smile, and he looked at Shigeru. He was almost perfectly still; his eyes were closed and there was a soft smile on his lips. The low level light glowed on his face and shoulders, and it reminded Satoshi of something from the past. _I used to be jealous of how good-looking everyone said he was, _he remembered._ Whenever I saw him, he was sneering, so maybe that's why I didn't see it before, but... But I guess he really is handsome._

Satoshi closed his eyes and exhaled. He didn't know where it had come from, but he felt all the bad things being expelled from his skin. Maybe all it took was being in the water with Shigeru, his _friend_. And that same happiness began floating in him, too.

"I won't worry about the way you're acting anymore," decided Satoshi.

"Good," said Shigeru, breathlessly.

Satoshi hummed in reply as the water soaked into him. He felt his insides turning light like sugar spun into cotton candy. His chest rose up, buoyed to the surface of the water, and that place behind his heart was filled with the distant certainty that he wouldn't be worrying; not about anything, anymore.


	11. Chapter 11

I thought of something very odd; Satoshi and Shigeru have had a very tumultuous time since this story began, after all; it has taken me nearly two years to write the past three days for them, which has encompassed everything from earthquakes to tribal ritual and mysteries to threatened lives. At long last, I'm allowing the boys to get settled in at Alph. So this chapter is going to cover a week and three days at minimum -- it could be up to three weeks and three days, even. It's open to the reader, but I'm leaning towards three weeks myself.

**In Ruins**

**

* * *

**chapter eleven

* * *

When Shigeru and Satoshi emerged from the doors of the bath house, their skin flushed red from the soak, Masato was waiting on the street outside as he had promised.

"It's about time," he whined. "What were you doing in there?!"

Shigeru adjusted the bath towel on his shoulder, inadvertently revealing the damp spot that had coagulated on the fabric of his shirt. He looked at the green-haired boy and placidly replied, "Masato, it's a bath house. We were washing ourselves."

"And it was great!" Satoshi added, stretching out his arms over his head. "I can't believe how _clean_ I feel. I don't think I've felt this clean since I arrived at Alph."

"I know what you mean. I think it's because we're not in the middle of a desert anymore," Shigeru explained. "e

"Stop standing there and just talking. We have somewhere to go."

"Cool," said Satoshi immediately, eagerly walking after Masato. Shigeru took up the rear of the trio, walking with an easy, lingering step that belied his state of blissful relaxation.

Masato rolled his eyes at Satoshi. "You don't even know where we're going! Why are you so excited?"

The thought drifted through Shigeru's mind, _Because everything is exciting for him. He's just the sort of person who is happy. _This was followed with another thought, or a memory, rather; it was of Satoshi standing mutely at the Indigo plateau as he was handed a bouquet of flowers, a medal and his dreams. _Is he really happy?_

Shigeru looked at Satoshi, who was in the middle of replying to Masato, a broad smile lighting up his face, "...making fun of me! My guess is that we're going somewhere, to - to keep us busy, yeah? It would be boring to have to sit inside all day."

Looking at Satoshi now, there was no trace in him of that boy who had been on television; nor was he anything like he the boy who he had met in the desert, when his leg had buckled underneath him, even though it had only been a week ago. _No, Satoshi seems happy enough,_ thought Shigeru, and dismissed his strange thinking completely.

"I wouldn't be sitting inside all day, anyhow," said Shigeru, instead. "If we had nothing to do, I'd spend the whole day walking around the town."

And he was being completely truthful, too; as far as he could tell, the sky was a perfect blue and the air was bone-achingly warm. At this point in the morning, at least, it wasn't too hot to him - his hair was only half-dry from his bath, and the cool clumps that rested against his forehead reminded him of the freshness of his life. Even if he didn't end up walking around the village of Alph, he would gladly find a spot of grass and lay on it, soaking up the heat until he was completely dry, warm, and peaceful all over.

"Shigeru! Shigeru, did you hear that?!"

Shigeru snapped back to attention at the sound of Satoshi's excited voice, and looked up from where the stone-paved street where he'd been vacantly gazing. "Hear what?" he asked.

"That we're going to work!" Satoshi smiled exuberantly.

"We're working?" he returned, startled. He didn't _want_ to work. He felt like he'd been working his entire life, and today, he was starting vacation for the first time in seven years. He'd been imagining the bliss of dozing off in a patch of grass, _not_ another succumbing to exhaustion on a research paper-laden table in a white-washed room.

"Yes, Shigeru, you'll be working from today forward," said Masato. "While you were lost in your daydream, Satoshi agreed with me that it would only be fair that you both go to work in exchange for your room and board."

Shigeru knew that it was only fair and right, but -- but it still felt too soon. He was going to say as much, but in a sharp movement, Masato turned onto half a flight of stairs. Shigeru and Satoshi followed after him up the steps, more or less at his heel - and Shigeru felt the world grow brighter just at the _pleasure _of how easily he could take the stairs now that his leg was healed. It made work slightly more bearable somehow.

"Hey, Masato?" Satoshi piped up, suddenly. "You know, Shigeru and I told you yesterday that we don't really know any trades. And that wasn't a lie, so..."

"Yes, I remembered," Masato replied. "I'm sure you'll make do without knowing anything."

"Uh..." Satoshi trailed off.

"So when you said you were putting us to work, you really meant manual labor, didn't you?," Shigeru filled in the silence, distasteful. "Manual labor; ugh. I'm pretty sure that's the only job I can think of which wouldn't require much training."

"We're not putting you to work like that, but I _wish_ we were. Maybe it would tire you out too much to pepper me with your questions every day," said Masato, lamenting.

Satoshi made a disapproving noise that sounded like it may have been borrowed from Masato's sister. "Don't say stuff like that, Masato. I know it's probably annoying, but don't you like it that we go to you for information rather than to someone else?" asked Satoshi.

"Well,... I..." Masato's face seemed to be at war with itself; uncertain of whether it should show pride, or a sneer, or just flat out frustration. Ultimately, Masato's expression settled on a sort of resignation as the boy admitted, "It could be worse. At least you're asking your questions to someone who _knows_ things."

After that hesitant one-eighty of opinions, Masato went back to his quiet pouting -- and Satoshi looked rather smug. A sudden smack of truth hit Shigeru so hard that he did a double-take upon the realization that Satoshi had intentionally been manipulating Masato's sense of self-fulness to override his dislike. It was still kind, but it was the most promising sign of manipulation that Shigeru had ever seen in Satoshi, and made Satoshi rise just that much higher in Shigeru's esteem.

"What, ah," Shigeru licked at his chapped bottom lip before he continued, "What trade have you lined up for us to learn, Masato?"

The three of them reached the top of the stairs and emerged on a little street made not of stone, but packed yellow dirt.

"A fairly decent one," said Masato evasively. When Shigeru and Satoshi seemed unimpressed, he threw up his hands. "Just ask your boss. I really don't care!"

Before Shigeru had a chance to ask about this boss, Masato was pointing out a building that stood a long stone's throw to their left, situated at the end of the street as if it were a cul-de-sac's finishing piece.

Upon seeing it, Shigeru knew immediately where he was. He had seen this place and studied it briefly in his past work; in his past _life_. He had not, however, seen it in his glory, which was magnificent even from the bright yellow-shaded road. A beautiful, straggly-trunked cedar tree fitted around with pots of flowers gave a lattice work of shade to the house's front. It was the only home facing the road; the rest had their facades facing opposite, and though there were small windows and sometimes even back doors, and on the side of the road where those buildings began, puffs of light green grass flourished, nothing intruded on the refuge of the place.

The house itself was like all the others in the city, formed by especially large limestones; in truth, it was actually a bit smaller, only being one story in height. Yet there was something about this building that he found immensely likable: the stones were fitted so perfectly together that there was not even the need for grout work between them. Shigeru wondered briefly if they were to become masons and tried to reconcile himself to the idea.

As they grew closer to the home, the morning light edged over the barrier of other buildings' roofs and shone brightly into the open windows. Within that pane-less view, Shigeru dimly made out the figure of an old man crouched over a rock slab. Shigeru squinted, trying to see his face more clearly, and succeeded (though, with shock) as he discerned that the old man was not only familiar, but his mentor in another life.

Masato lead them into Tano's home, at which point Satoshi also recognized the man, and kept looking at Shigeru, waiting for him to make the connection. Eventually Shigeru had to lean over and whisper into Satoshi's ear; _"Yes, I know who he is- or who he resembles. But since he doesn't know me, I don't see any reason to make a big production over it."_

Satoshi had wisely let the subject drop, in favor of congenial introductions and conversation. As Shigeru bowed to Tano, it surprised him to see that his mentor used a cane. It was a bizarre switch, and to Shigeru an unfair one: that in this world Tano could not easily stand on his legs, and Shigeru could. Tano was a good person, a better person than he was.

Shigeru and Satoshi had barely shared their names with Tano before Masato made a motion as if to leave.

"Where are you going?" asked Satoshi, curious.

"To work, too, of course. Now, listen.

"You should be grateful to Tano-san. He was the only one willing to take you in as apprentices, even though you have no trade and have uncertain origins. So if you do a bad job, then you won't have anywhere else to go," he threatened.

Satoshi looked a bit worried at this, but Tano just laughed.

"I think they'll do fine, Masato. You can run along and find your sister. I'll return your guests to you at the end of the day," he said, in an old and cheerful voice.

Masato inclined his head, darted a glare at Satoshi and Shigeru (his earlier camaraderie with Shigeru apparently forgotten), then left the room.

After waving goodbye, Tano put down his tea cup on its plate and sighed the sigh of a weary, old man.

"So, uh, Tano-san," Satoshi rubbed his hands together; visibly awkward. "Thanks for having us here."

Shigeru echoed the thanks and caught Tano staring at him with weak, yet perceptive eyes.

"What trade are you going to teach us?" asked Shigeru, awkward under Tano's gaze.

"One of the most important ones, my boy," said Tano. He reached behind himself, where there were several dusty-looking linen bags with the ends untied, and dusty granules were spilling from them onto the stone floor. He lifted one upright, and plopped it before himself. A tan-colored cloud rose up.

"Pottery," said Shigeru. He snapped his fingers together. "Of course!"

Satoshi's face was all confusion. "Pottery? You mean... like, how to make pots and such?"

Yes, _exactly _that_ -- _At Alph,Tano was such a help because of his veteranship in the field, yes; but specifically, due to his specialization in the clay pieces with hieroglyphics like those of the Unown. He had studied the composition of the dirt in the area, he had a great grasp of all of those things. How many times had Shigeru learned from him in the past?

Now, in the home of _this_ Tano, now that he was looking for it, there were pots and plates and cups all over the edges of the room, in various states of completion.

Satoshi, though still hadn't reconciled the idea in his head. It was as if he had never considered the stuff before. "What's the big deal about pottery?" he wondered aloud.

Shigeru considered offering up a few (hundred) reasons why pottery was a big deal, but Tano had opened his mouth and Satoshi probably wouldn't understand anyway. He didn't exactly have a solid background in the studies of history.

"Open these bags, will you, my boy?" Tano asked Satoshi. "And be careful with them, they're full of different dirts."

"You keep around bags of dirt?" asked Satoshi, disbelievingly.

"To form the clay for pottery, of course," said the old man. "I gather them from different places on the island, and mix them with just the right amount of water, to get the right consistency. It differs for what I'm making, and how it is going to be fired, of course, and for what color ceramic we want to have at the day's end..."

Shigeru sat back and let Tano explain to Satoshi, who was wide-eyed as he listened -- though perhaps bug-eyed would be more appropriate. Shigeru couldn't help but remember that Satoshi hadn't been in school, or studied, for years; the whole idea of the boy struggling to remember even an introductory lecture from Tano was laughable, and Shigeru found himself chuckling before he could stop it. He settled on sitting with his elbows on his knee, hiding a smile behind his hand.

Finally, Satoshi found himself released from the impromptu lesson and took a deep breath of relief when Tano's attention turned to Shigeru.

"What about you?" Tano asked Shigeru.

"I have a large pool of technical knowledge concerning the arts of pot-making," said Shigeru, with restrained pride. "But I don't have any experience in the hands on process of it."

"Then we might as well get started today," said Tano, smoothing over the slab of rock with his hands. "Satoshi, yes? Would you take this bowl and fill it with some water from that well in the back... over there? Yes, thank you. Now, Shigeru, come closer so you can see. I'm going to show you how to form the clay for a simple, undecorated bowl, just like this one..."

By the time lunch had ended, Tano was leaned over the first two clay samples that Satoshi and Shigeru had attempted. His wrinkly fingers pressed a chunk of Satoshi's clay together, forming a flat and incredibly near-perfect circle that would become the bottom of the bowl.

"Too chunky," he said. "Did you get lazy when you were supposed to be grinding down the rocks?"

Satoshi looked nearly ill at the criticism. "Don't worry," Shigeru told him, "It was only your first time."

Then it was the turn for Shigeru's clay. The moment Tano picked it up he let out a sound of disgust.

"Too wet!" he exclaimed, throwing down the clay on the slab, and rubbing off the excess wet clay-mud from his palms. "I will have to wait until the evening before I can use this clay now."

"But - how is it too wet?" Shigeru protested. "I followed your instructions exactly. The proportions--"

"My boy," Tano interrupted. "The proportions are merely a guide."

Shigeru frowned. "But I still don't understand. I did everything right."

"Your calculations were correct, but you trusted in them instead of judging with your eyes. Sometimes there is more than one truth," Tano extended his arm towards the window. "Today, the air was not as hot on Alph. Was it not pleasant? And so the clay retained more water. It is as simple as that."

Shigeru stared at him.

Tano continued, "You have to _feel _the clay and be willing to mold it in the way that is required, not merely in the way you have decided."

"You aren't talking about clay anymore, are you?" asked Satoshi.

Tano smiled mysteriously.

"Oh, I _am _talking about the clay. It is true that it has its own mind and inconsistencies. But perhaps the same principles may be applied to the circumstances of one's life..."

Shigeru couldn't help smiling fondly, even though he realized that he was being told that he was wrong (something which simply _didn't happen)_. Rather than focusing on his failure, all that Shigeru could think of was how in both the way Tano made his clay and in the way he spoke and lived his life, he was completely unchanged: a true doppleganger.

"Well," said Shigeru at last, "If I did it wrong, I'll just have to try again, won't I?"

"That's the spirit," Tano replied. "We all make mistakes. Why, throughout my career, I have made enough bad pieces of pottery to fill this house with them! The important thing is to try again, eh, boys? ...Shall we?"

"Let's do it!" Satoshi said enthusiastically, and sat down at the slab. "I'll make sure to grind my clay down better this time."

Shigeru couldn't explain why, but when he sat down for a second time, he felt a bit of that same hope, too. He knew that life didn't always come with second chances, but he wasn't stupid enough to reject the few he got.

That night, as the night before, Satoshi and Shigeru arranged their bedding not three feet away from each other, on the side of the room opposite of the hanging tapestry hiding the bathroom.

Shigeru expected to fall asleep hearing nothing more than the cracks and pops of the last dying embers at the fireplace near their feet. However, as soon as he had gotten under his covers, and Satoshi under his, Satoshi began to speak.

"I admit that I was really nervous that you were going to do just perfectly, like with everything else," said Satoshi.

Shigeru didn't reply immediately. All at once his pride was both wounded and assuaged by Satoshi's statement. He settled on a simple, "Oh?"

"Yeah," Satoshi replied. "I mean... You know I used to be jealous of you, right?"

Of course he knew. He looked at the stars that were shining impossibly white from beyond the windows and remembered.

"I _tried _to make you jealous of me," Shigeru told him. He turned away from the stars and towards Satoshi. "I'm not sure that I'm happy it worked, though."

"Did it ever!" Satoshi laughed. "There was one time in my first year of traveling when I stayed up all night just thinking about what you had said to me, and how I just had to beat you!"

Shigeru felt his mouth go dry. "I... really? I know you would get so upset when I picked on you, but I didn't think you really dwelled on it." _Like I dwelled on it,_ he added internally.

"I don't really dwell on anything," said Satoshi, the honesty in the statement evident in his very voice. "I mean, I don't really think too hard about emotions or stuff like that. The only thing I really thought about... Well, back then I used to think about my goals all the time."

"You did. And it worked out well for you, didn't it, Champion."

Shigeru had meant it as a friendly jibe. He really had -- so he didn't understand why Satoshi didn't reply, and why the air in the room that they shared between them had suddenly turned cold. It was as if by calling him _Champion_, Shigeru had accidentally stumbled upon a secret code word to the destruction of the world. He struggled to think of something that would stop the walls from returning between them. The only thing he could think of bringing up were words that Satoshi had never heard before. A secret.

He gathered his courage in the gathering bleakness, and spoke softly.

"Satoshi, I had... I had more than few sleepless nights, too. When I would think of you," he said.

To his relief, the words had their hoped-for effect, and Satoshi actually shifted to his side and leaned on his arm in order to face Shigeru better; his angst, for the moment, forgotten.

"Wait, what?" Satoshi asked. "That's... strange. I can't believe you would do that. You always beat me, in everything; you were a better trainer than I was back then."

"Yeah, I know! But I wasn't thinking about beating you!" Shigeru grinned, perhaps for the first time, in a fond recollection of those nights. "I mean, sometimes I thought about our battles. But mostly, I was thinking about different things."

"Like what?"

"Just... things," said Shigeru, and though he didn't mean to be evasive, he knew he had no choice. Fortunately, Satoshi didn't pry. It was unclear to Shigeru whether his motives were from disinterest, or from simply lack of energy, but all the same it let Shigeru off the hook from revealing uncomfortable truths.

"I think I'm really going to enjoy making pottery," Satoshi said, laying back down. His voice was heavy with sleep. "Aren't you, Shi....Shigeru?"

"Stop talking and go to sleep, you idiot," Shigeru chided him half-heartedly. Satoshi, though, was nothing if not passionate in everything he did. In very appropriate form he was fast asleep within moments after Shigeru's mothering command.

Shigeru, on the other hand, did not fall asleep as quickly. It was like all of those nights from his youthful journey were returning to him in substance, if not in their presence. He lay in bed and stared at the blob-shaped shadow patterns on the ceiling, remembering the past and wondering about his present.

There were secrets, and there were secrets; and Shigeru knew he had many of them. But _this _secret was one best kept from Satoshi, not for his sake alone, but for the good of the friendship that they were re-building between them.

No, of course he couldn't tell Satoshi what he had been thinking of on those sleepless nights.

He would not tell Satoshi that he had been in love with him.

* * *

Shigeru woke up with the sun for the second day in a row. It was as curious to him as it was to Satoshi; he had never known himself to be a morning person, but now that apparently the opportunity presented itself, he enjoyed it. He liked the initial silence of the day and the growing murmur of things outside. It wasn't a solitude; there were bird pokemon taking wing over the city, after all, and they called their names out to each other. He enjoyed heating water and making it into tea (which he couldn't love any more than he did; whatever plants Haruka picked and dried for her teas, they made the most delicious herbal combination that he had drunk in his life).

It was not only the morning that had started similarly. The rest of the day progressed in nearly a perfect compliment to the prior. Haruka, rather than Masato, joined them for breakfast. They ate a nutty oatmeal, dried fish, and a queer sort of curdled milk before they took off to the bath house. Haruka informed them that, for this moon cycle, the women were allowed into the bath house in the evenings, while men had it in the mornings. If either Satoshi or Shigeru were dirty enough by the end of the day, though, Haruka jestingly offered to bring out a large basin of water and pour it over them, in the middle of the road and in sight of everyone.

When Haruka walked them to Tano's house and workshop, the trip seemed to be shorter to Shigeru, even though it was the same path and their walking pace was slower. It had to be Haruka's much more pleasant company, he imagined, and it occurred to him that Satoshi had been incredibly lucky, indeed, to have had such a good traveling partner. He had always regretted that he had travelled, although with his pokemon, largely alone.

Work was a lot like the day prior; they began with a 'warm up' of making clay for a bowl. Then they did it a second time, and a third. By the end of the day, Tano felt that they were at last proficient at preparing clay for bowls and for two different sizes of cups. This was all fine and well, but, Shigeru had found that the practice had grown dreadfully dull; during their clean up, he was excessively relieved to overhear Tano telling Satoshi that they would begin to learn how to mold basic clay shapes on the following day.

Shigeru caught his mentor before they had left the workshop.

"Tano-san, we really appreciate everything you're doing for us. I mean to say... just for everything... thank you."

Tano smiled. "Now, why are you saying that?"

Shigeru furrowed his brow. "Because I _am _grateful that you're letting us learn your trade, and-"

"No, no. My boy, you're grateful for more than that, but not to me."

Shigeru blanched a pale white. He had been caught in a lie he had barely realized that he had formed, himself.

"Tano-san, how did you know...?" he asked.

"I have a way of sensing these sort of things," said the old man, resting on his cane. "Now, go off with you. I'll see you and your friend tomorrow morning."

"Yes sir," replied Shigeru, dutifully. Yet as he turned to catch up with Satoshi, who was speaking to the waiting Haruka, he felt himself filled with a quiet mirth. It seemed to him that this false Tano was as clever and discerning as the real one. In fact, there was hardly any difference between them at all, and Shigeru couldn't help feeling like he hadn't met someone new here in Alph; rather, it felt like he had reconnected with an old friend.

Whenever he got back to his world, the real world, he would take this world's Tano's advice, and thank _his_ Tano-san. Shigeru knew that he owed the man at least that much, if not everything.

At the end of the road, Haruka waved at him to hurry and Satoshi called his name. He broke out of his thoughts and ran up to meet them with lightness of heart.

* * *

The next day, also, the sun rose.

Shigeru rose to consciousness with the barest traces of light on the horizon, and even with sleep at the edges of his eyes he knew there was a sameness in this day with the two days that had come before. He got up and began brewing tea, and wondered if there was truly a new routine for him, now, at Alph. As the day rushed by, he grew certain that it was not only a new routine, but it was a new life as well. He could lay down the main points quite easily: in the morning, he woke next to Satoshi; they ate; they bathed; they were walked to work and he would roll clay in his hands. Then he washed it off of him as the sun began to set, and went home, where they ate again before laying down on their pallets.

Yes, he realized, all too easily; this was his life now.

Some days passed like this, nearly a week of them, and then he found himself not counting the time, because it didn't mean anything anymore. All that mattered was the sun and Satoshi, and sometimes, they were the one and the same.

* * *

XD


	12. Chapter 12

This was a fun chapter to write -- it's been a while since I've had the chance to throw in a segment of humor (was the last one in chapter 2, _really?!?)._ Look out for a shout-out to the epic/infamous Splash Attack battle between Ash and Gary on Youtube. Yay for pop-culture(ish) inserts in fanfiction and otherwise!

As always, huge thanks to my beta Greenflower and to my reviewers, who I try to thank individually. This story really does exist for and because of you guys!

**In Ruins**

chapter 12

* * *

They had gotten better at it. Or Shigeru had, anyway. Satoshi wasn't sure why his wide-brimmed plates kept breaking in the kiln and Shigeru's usually didn't, but every morning since they'd begun to learn from Tano, Satoshi felt the bursts of excitement in his veins building higher and higher until the energy brimmed over into a near-constant thrum. Satoshi didn't know that he had been feeling dead until he was alive, like he hadn't been for years; or alive like maybe he had never fully been. He couldn't remember which it was because too many years had passed in-between.

Tano had given him and Shigeru the task of gathering different dirts (_"not dirt; minerals"_ Shigeru would say) for the day's clay-making, which Satoshi thought to be great, because it gave him a chance to enjoy the perfect weather with Shigeru. Standing on the far side of the city, just outside the low walls of Alph, he watched Shigeru shoveling a bunch of dirt glinting with specks of mica into his linen bag. Satoshi did the same, though far less methodically, hacking at the ground with his hand shovel furiously.

"_And Satoshi uses another Dig Attack!" _he crowed to himself.

"Did you say something?" Shigeru called over. Satoshi winced at being caught, but tried not to show it otherwise.

"No, nothing," Satoshi yelled back at him.

"Didn't sound like nothing," Shigeru laughed in reply, but Satoshi ignored him. It would only be _kind-of-extremely _embarrassing to be caught at his own game of Pokemon.

He wasn't sure how it had started, but a week ago he had begun to pretend that he wasn't actually working, but it was some sort of pokemon training. There was of course no battle league to aim for, but that was entirely irrelevant to Satoshi: all he cared about was beating Shigeru.

He had worked out a system even. For every successful piece that he molded and fired in the kiln, Satoshi would count it as another Level Up. He had started at around Level 24 this morning and was pretty sure that today was a good day, and so he was aiming at finishing the evening at Level 27. Shigeru, on the other hand... he was, _as always, _in the lead, at roughly Level 31 already.

"Stupid..." Satoshi muttered. "...rival.."

"What was that?

Shigeru was standing over him, smiling, when Satoshi reconnected with the present.

"Nothing," Satoshi evaded, ducking his head back down and scooping out the dirt more vigorously.

"Uh-huh," Shigeru replied skeptically. He wiped a glean of perspiration off of his brow and smudged some red dirt on his forehead. "Any way, I'm ready to go back to Tano's when you are."

"Oh," said Satoshi. He had barely filled up three fourths of his bag. "I have a bit more to go. It's kind of rocky around here."

"No it's not," said Shigeru.

"Yes, it is," Satoshi lied.

"I don't see any rocks," Shigeru told him. "Nothing but the dumb rock that's supposed to be your head, anyway."

"Hey!" Satoshi reflexively grabbed at his head, and Shigeru swatted him.

"Kidding," he laughed. Even though it had been kind of mean, Satoshi found himself reluctantly smiling, too. He unbent his legs, stretched, and squinted in the bright light of the sun that was nearly overhead already. No wonder he was hungry. Or was he thirsty?

Shigeru was bent over and digging again. Satoshi's mouth was dry.

Definitely thirsty, he decided.

"You know, I need some water," Satoshi told Shigeru. "If you wanna finish this bag for me, I'm going to get a drink really quickly from the Trough."

Shigeru shuddered. "Sure, I'll finish your bag. But I don't know how you can do it," he said. "Drinking from a water channel open to the air, that goes throughout the village, that people put their dirty hands in upstream? No, I'll take my water straight from the well, thanks."

"You're such a girl. I'm pretty sure that Tano doesn't get his water directly from the well," Satoshi pointed out. "Neither do Haruka and Masato; I've watched them."

"Fine. If that's the way it is, then no more water for me. From now I'm drinking rice wine."

Satoshi grinned. "Wine instead of water? Shigeru, I'm pretty sure that Alph doesn't need a town drunk."

"Of course it does," Shigeru responded. "That way, you and I could be a matching set."

"A matching set? How?" asked Satoshi. "Wait -- who am I supposed to be?!"

"Village idiot, _of course,"_ Shigeru smirked. "As I said earlier, dumb as a rock..."

Satoshi dropped his dirt bag on the ground. "I'm leaving," he declared, attempting to inject anger into his voice, "I'm going to get some water and I'll make sure to bring back extra to throw at you with."

"Yeah? You gonna hit me with a splash attack? If so then I should probably be thanking you!"

_"What!_" exclaimed Satoshi.

"Obviously, I'm thirsty too, and sweltering in this heat," said Shigeru, and he lifted the hem of his tunic over his head and threw it to the ground beside him. "Anyway I was just kidding."

"I know," Satoshi bit out. He turned away and briskly walked toward the low wall where the Trough ran through.

For some reason, even though Shigeru still wore tan drawstring trousers that rode on his hips, when Satoshi was watching him take off his top in the middle of the field it had felt strange and -- inappropriate. And immodest.

And that's why he was blushing.

* * *

Satoshi dipped his water pouch into the stream and held it there, even though it was already full. The water swelled around his hand and some of his lower arm, cool and refreshing, and Satoshi began to wonder about Shigeru - in a specifically vague sort of way. _ I'm doing good, sure; but what about Shigeru? How is he doing in all of this, anyway? Is he adjusted? _It wasn't normal for him to talk with Shigeru (or anyone!) about his feelings, or feeling in general, so he had to settle for guessing that Shigeru was doing fine, too. After all, Shigeru seemed happier now than he had when they'd arrived at Alph. Come to think of it, he was happier, too, even though Pikachu...

Immediately the guilt began swelling around his adam's apple, and Satoshi had to swallow._ No,_ he thought, as he took out his hand and bag from the water, _it's better not to think about the past when I'm this happy._

Occasionally, only occasionally, memories of his old life popped up like images from a distant dream. It was weird, Satoshi thought further, how quickly he had acclimated himself to his new life at Alph, and how he didn't dwell on his old life much at all. When he tried to compare one world to the next, it was difficult to say which one felt more real. Perhaps it would be easier to separate what was his old life and what was not if he hadn't met Masato, Haruka, Hikari, and everyone else from his old world, living completely different lives. Whether or not this was the world he had lived in most of his life, to Satoshi it felt more real simply because it was here, and now; was it really that surprising that he had begun to live a different life, too?

When Satoshi looked up, he found himself eye to eye with Kasumi. _Alph's _Kasumi, that is; all 5"4 inches tall and 3"2 inches wide of her.

He dropped his water bag in the dirt.

"Kasumi!" he exclaimed, completely shocked.

"Satoshi," she greeted him with a hand on her (even more massive than it had been before) belly. "How are you?"

"Not pregnant," he blurted, and of course regretted it immediately.

To his fortune, and surprise, she didn't seem to take offense, and beamed with pride instead, looking down at her stomach. "I'm about eight months along now. I can feel my baby turn when it hears Takeshi's or my voice. Isn't that miraculous?"

"It is," Satoshi agreed, though he was thinking that it was miraculous how she wasn't kicking his butt. It had to be the hormones. "So... I haven't seen you since you and Takeshi and Shigeru and I talked at the Festival last month."

Kasumi looked up and smiled.

"Well, I don't get to move around as much as I'd like to. Walking around with a little one attached to my stomach is hard on my feet and my back. Fortunately, Takeshi has strong hands and can give me a really good massage when I tire myself out."

Satoshi though it was weird how she kept mentioning Takeshi in every other sentence. It was like they were the same person or something.

"So... What are you doing out here?" he wondered. "If you're not supposed to be out of the house."

"Ha! Takeshi couldn't keep me _in_ the house even if he does think it's better for me. I have a job after all. I'm not doing most of it anymore, as you can see I'm a bit preoccupied, but I still work on some stuff. Right now I'm just checking on the water flow of the Trough. My sisters and I are in charge of the water at Alph, you know."

"I didn't know that," said Satoshi, surprised. So this Kasumi had sisters, too! Satoshi tried to remember what Kasumi's sisters looked like. He only remembered that they were supposed to be beautiful, and he remembered that he had been unimpressed, and annoyed that they wouldn't battle with him on top of the rest. "What does Takeshi do?" he asked.

"Oh, well that's the funny thing," Kasumi laughed, and leaned herself against the side of the Trough. "You know how the Trough is made of rock?"

"Yeah," Satoshi nodded. "Shigeru noticed that it was really special somehow..."

"It is, and it takes a lot of work to maintain. My family may take care of the water, keeping it clean and flowing, but there other things that are important, too. Like the way that the rocks are put together."

"I guess that makes sense, but it doesn't really answer my question about what Takeshi does for a living..."

"Oh. Right. Takeshi comes from a family of masons - people who work on rocks. We'd met before several times, being near the same age and just in the course of life here, but the first time that I really _met him_ was when I was working on a dam, and he'd seen me having problems. He dropped everything that he was doing - literally, he'd been carrying a huge boulder and just left it in the middle of the road - and he ran up to me, took my hand, and insisted that I would let him help me at any cost." She laughed. "Of course, he took my hand right out of where it had been holding back the leak, so as soon as he was done with his speech, the dam completely broke and we got soaking wet!"

"You must have been so mad!" said Satoshi, the images churning in his mind. But Kasumi cocked her said to the side.

"Well, I was _at first._ I was freezing cold, and I called him an idiot and an annoyance and - well, all sorts of things! But when I finally finished, there he was, still on his knee, frozen as if he were holding my hand, drenched in water... and still staring at me, with wide, hurt eyes! Just like a kicked Growlithe! He looked so adorable, I couldn't stay angry. I finished fixing the leak and invited him to my house to dry off. We were engaged a year later."

"Wow." Satoshi looked at Kasumi and felt like he was seeing the past, present, and future of everything that was his orange-haired friend. He thought back to the first year they had traveled together. Never, not even once, had he imagined that Kasumi would grow up to enjoy Takeshi's girl-chasing antics. But then, he had never seen Takeshi target those attentions to Kasumi. Satoshi thought about how she had always been so convinced of her own beauty, yet at the same time, so desperate for someone to prove that it was true. Maybe she had never thought it was true. Maybe it really _did _take someone like Takeshi to make her feel beautiful and happy. And he had probably evened out her temper a bit, too. He finished thinking it over and smiled.

"Kasumi, I'm really happy for you," he said, and for the first time, he wasn't too confused or jealous. He meant it.

* * *

Shigeru ventured his questions about the visit later that afternoon, after the two of them had returned to Tano's house and workshop to put their dirt and rock to a more worthy use.

"You took a long time getting water earlier. I saw you talking to someone," Shigeru mentioned. "Anything interesting happen?"

"Yeah, actually," said Satoshi, "When I was at the Trough, I ran into Kasumi and she invited me over for dinner."

"Kasumi, Kasumi... Was she the pregnant half of that couple who you talked to at the Festival?"

"Yeah. And not only is she pregnant; she's _eight months_ pregnant," Satoshi replied.

Shigeru whistled, and turned his unfinished goblet in his hands. "I bet she waddles like a Pinplup."

Satoshi thought for a second. Actually, when Kasumi waved goodbye and went back to her house, she really _had _waddled like a Pinplup. He tried very hard not to laugh, and only succeeded in stifling it with a hand over his mouth.

It probably wasn't the best idea, but he only realized it _after _his clay-covered hand had touched his lips. Satoshi spat out as much as he could and grimaced at the taste of grits in his mouth. _He hated grits! Hated them!_

"Anyway," he said to Shigeru, as soon as his mouth felt relatively clean again inside. "I'm not going to go back for dinner with you and Haruka tonight."

"What?" Shigeru's hands stopped moving around his clay and looked up at Satoshi. "What?" he repeated.

"I told you that Kasumi invited me to dinner," Satoshi looked at Shigeru, who had an odd expression. He spoke the last sentence as clearly and drawn out as he could. "So... I'm going."

"I had assumed that you'd declined."

Satoshi could only stare at him, dumbfounded. "But why would I do that?"

"Well, for one thing... " Shigeru said, "Are you sure you can get back? I mean, we haven't gone back from Tano's alone before."

"We've been here nearly a month, though. I could probably walk from Haruka and Masato's to Tano's in my sleep," said Satoshi. "I don't know why Haruka keeps coming to pick us up. And besides, if I follow along the Trough long enough I'll end up in a place that I know, rather than just recognize. Alph's really not that big."

_"Hmm."_ Shigeru frowned. He continued molding the clay for a few more minutes. Then, without looking at Satoshi, he asked, "So... What does Kasumi do for a living, besides make babies?"

Satoshi couldn't explain why, even to himself, but he got the impression that Shigeru was displeased with the idea of him going out. Or maybe he just didn't like Kasumi? Or pregnant people?

"She and her three sisters take care of the Trough. And her husband, Takeshi, is a stone mason, and -- _Shigeru!_"

Satoshi and Shigeru both stared at Shigeru's nearly finished goblet. It would have been perfect, but during Satoshi's story, Shigeru had poked a finger through the clay. Frustrated, Shigeru mashed the clay against the rock slab, at which point he started over completely.

Satoshi watched him with concern. "Shigeru..."

But Shigeru ignored Satoshi, his face was all disbelief as he rolled out his clay for a second try. "Seriously?" he said to himself as much as to Satoshi, "The water and rock gym leaders of the Indigo League take care of the water and rock, here at Alph?"

"I didn't even think of that," said Satoshi, surprised. "That's a really weird coincidence."

"There's no way that it could be coincidence," Shigeru said flatly.

At that, Satoshi finally had to put down his half-formed bowl.

"Are you mad at me?"

"No," said Shigeru. Then he sighed, and swept a hand through his auburn bangs. "...Or, I don't know. Not really. I'm just not looking forward to walking for twenty minutes with Masato. That's all it is."

"Haruka will be there, too," pointed out Satoshi. "And you like Haruka."

"Everyone likes Haruka, but I'll be outnumbered without you to play interference," Shigeru replied. But Satoshi just couldn't bring himself to understand why it was such a big deal.


	13. Chapter 13

Happy thanksgiving, friends! I had a full-time job this summer, and this fall I have no excuse except for romantic trauma, but that's never stopped me from writing before, so I suppose I shouldn't be letting it stop me now, either! I really am sorry about the wait and appreciate all of the encouragement that I have received. :) This story WILL be finished - I've already plotted it out, so sit tight and.... enjoy!

* * *

**chapter thirteen  
**

* * *

It was a big deal.

When Shigeru had first heard what Satoshi wanted to do, he'd been taken by surprise. He'd become upset then. Now, he was angry.

And terrified.

The took him back to his first few moments in Alph, when buckets of sunlight poured over him, and the surf rolled between his upturned toes, and freedom moved him to inexplicable and encompassing joy. Things had changed since then. Complete, utter freedom terrified him, because now it entailed being removed from Satoshi, and Satoshi made things _real. _He was a reminder of before; a reminder that Shigeru wasn't just the person that he was presently; that inside of him also rested the boy whom was raised by a famous pokemon professor, had traveled and gone on adventures, and even been alone.

It was that old-and-new Shigeru, all mixed up inside for reasons that he couldn't possibly understand, much less _want _to understand, who stood stoically with a broom in his hand when Satoshi declared that the sun had gotten too low in the sky.

"It's already twilight!" Satoshi exclaimed. "I'm supposed to be outside already! Kasumi is gonna be really mad if I'm late!"

Shigeru wanted to tell him that he could care less about Kasumi getting mad, and that she could stuff it, for all he cared, but the words refused to come out. He swallowed down whatever feeling had risen in his throat and mechanically began to stretch out his arms and sweep again.

"Why don't you go on?" Tano suggested to Satoshi. "Shigeru and I can finish the cleaning together."

Satoshi turned to Shigeru with an apologetic sort of smile. "Is that okay?" he asked.

Shigeru swept the same space in front of him for a second, third, and fourth time. "It's fine," he said. But his thoughts were dully tumbling in his mind, like dead leaves in an eddy, aimless and disturbed.

Satoshi didn't notice, which wasn't surprising; after a quick goodbye, he dashed outside to meet Kasumi and Takeshi for dinner. Shigeru focused on the cleaning - or more appropriately, he focused on the view outside the window as he finished the cleaning - and summoned as much serenity as he could, while he watched Satoshi disappear into the maze of sun-lit limestone homes and their long-cast shadows of the street. Tano-san watched him in turn, but said nothing until Shigeru was finished with his work. And only then, it was just a knowing sort of "goodbye, see you tomorrow" that would have sent chills down Shigeru's back had he been less pre-occupied.

Shigeru walked outside to meet Haruka. As soon as he stepped through the stone-inlaid doorway, he shaded his eyes to check his vision. To his mild surprise, there were two girls instead of just one waving at him from the road.

"Haruka, Hikari," Shigeru greeted as he approached, "Hey."

Both of the girls chimed in appropriately; Hikari with extra enthusiasm.

"So you remembered me!" she exclaimed, her voice rich with pride.

"Of course I do. You're hard to forget," Shigeru answered. From behind Hikari, he watched Haruka fold her arms and blow the bangs off of her forehead with a big puff of air. Shigeru nearly raised an eyebrow at the behavior, but refrained, and focused on Hikari again.

"So..." he ventured, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see Satoshi," she said, and reached up to twirl a piece of her hair around her index finger. The bangles on her wrists clacked together noisily as she did.

"You're friends?" asked Shigeru, in disbelief.

"_Yes," _huffed Hikari, "We met at the festival."

Shigeru stared at her. He remembered her promiscuous dancing from the festival, and knew that she had talked with Satoshi briefly, but he had also talked to Hikari for several minutes, and he didn't consider her a friend.

Haruka interrupted his thoughts. "Shigeru, is Satoshi still working inside?"

"No," Shigeru answered, trying to keep the anger from his voice, "He left a couple of minutes ago to meet some friends for dinner."

"Who is he with?" asked Haruka.

"Well, he said he was meeting with some water-worker named Kasumi -"

"KASUMI?" Hikari interjected, "KASUMI!?"

Shigeru answered slowly. "...Yeah."

Hikari's shoulders rose and fell rapidly for several moments, but at end, the girl took a deep breath and let it out thinly.

"...That's nice," she said, "Really nice."

"Is it really," Shigeru dead-panned. Hikari nodded, but her smile were so tight that Shigeru found himself shrinking away from her unintentionally. She was staring at some indefinable point, with her teeth gritted, and a bit of sweat breaking out over her forehead. He had met many girls in his life, but Hikaru was absolutely _frightening._

"I like Kasumi," said Haruka, interrupting the awkwardness that had built up in their circle of conversation. "And Takeshi, too. I think that they are a nice couple."

"You would," Hikari muttered.

After a quick glare, Haruka turned back to Shigeru in her bright and easy way.

"Are you not joining Satoshi for dinner, then?"

"I wasn't invited," answered Shigeru, his voice surprising him with his own bitterness. He feigned a smile to cover it as best as he could. "I'll still be eating with you, unless you made other plans... Or even if you did make other plans, because I have nowhere else to go."

"The only plan was for the four of us to eat together," said Hikari, her voice somehow agitated.

"Yes! Well, three is still great, too! Let's go," suggested Haruka, and after a moment of hesitation, plucked Shigeru's arm from his side and linked it with her own.

Surprised, Shigeru looked at Haruka from the corner of his eyes.

She was staring straight ahead. Blushing.

Oh, God.

Shigeru lifted his eyes as if the act alone were begging the universe for mercy.

He was surrounded by insanity. Why, why did Satoshi have to abandon him _now?_

* * *

Kasumi and Takeshi's limestone cottage sat at the outskirts of Alph, wrapped in leafy plants, flowers, rocks, and the Trough. When Satoshi came inside, the aroma of a feast wafted in from the adjacent kitchen. Conversation with Takeshi and Kasumi was easy and Takeshi of Alph proved to be just as friendly as his counterpart from Nibi Town(1). Of course, Takeshi and Kasumi didn't know that they were all old friends in another world. Satoshi just treated the situation like he did with Haruka: he ignored it, and overcome any possible tensions by being cheerfully brazen and highly complimentary of the food as soon as it was placed in front of him.

Except that it was a feast, and as soon as he was finished with one plate, another would be immediately placed in front of him. Usually, this was not a problem for Satoshi. It was in fact the opposite. Satoshi had never shied away from eating, or over-eating, as the case would be; he took a special pride in being a hungry person. But five courses was really starting to push the limit.

"I'm so full," he exclaimed.

Staring out the window, he could see the peaking crest of the moon edging out over the sky.

"Look, it's nearly full, too," he exclaimed.

"It sure is," Takeshi agreed.

Kasumi looked out the window contemplatively.

"The last time we met, it was at the festival on the full moon. That means you've been here for almost a full moon cycle now," she said.

"Almost, yeah," affirmed Satoshi. "It's getting to be a long time, huh."

"It is," agreed Takeshi. "Are you enjoying yourself in Alph?"

Satoshi scrunched up his face. "Yeah, kind of, but I'm _working!_"

"Working is good for you. What are you..."

"He's apprenticing with Tano, the pot-maker," answered Kasumi, before her husband could even finish his question. Unfazed, Takeshi continued the conversation as if he had been uninterrupted, and said to Satoshi, "Hey, that's kind of fun. Tano is a nice guy."

Satoshi's face fell as he griped, "I know he is, but I'm just doing the same thing, all day, every day! It's tiring!"

Kasumi laughed and took another eager bite of food.

"If you're tired, you could just ask to take a break," Takeshi pointed out.

"You don't think that Tano-san would mind?"

"Even if he does, I doubt that he would stop you every once in a while," Kasumi put in. "You've got other things to do anyway. Takeshi, can you pass me that lamb? Thanks."

Satoshi looked blankly in front of him.

"'Other things to do?'" he echoed.

Kasumi rolled her eyes. "Well, things to do with the _legend, _you know."

"'The legend'," repeated Satoshi dumbly.

"Yes, the legend that you're here to fulfill." Kasumi's sarcasm flickered, and she furrowed her brow. "You do know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

Satoshi laughed nervously and fiddled with the edge of the pillow he was sitting on. "Oh yeah. That - of course. The Chief told Shigeru and I all about it. Yep. It's going great."

Kasumi took another bite of her rosemary braised lamb. "Do you mean that you'll have fulfilled the requirements soon?"

"Well, Shigeru and I, are, we're, uh, thinking about it."

Kasumi and Takeshi shared a look, and Satoshi's shoulders slumped.

"Okay," he admitted. "I thought we already answered the legend just by getting here. I didn't know that there was more."

"Of course there is. You're supposed to save us," Kasumi stated.

"Yeah, okay, I also knew _that," _said Satoshi. "But that's harder to think about. We - Shigeru and I - haven't been told exactly how we're supposed to save everyone. Aren't legends supposed to come with instructions or something? I mean, that's how it's always been before."

Kasumi opened her mouth to speak, but Takeshi cut in.

"You know, Satoshi," he said, his voice soft but firm, "I think that you don't need to worry about fulfilling the legend. Whatever you need to do, it'll just work out on its own."

"How can you know that?"

Instead of answering him directly, Takeshi shifted his gaze to meet with his wife's. After a moment, Satoshi saw the comprehension dawn on her face, and then the couple smiled at each other for no apparent reason at all.

"...We just do," answered Kasumi, and she rested her hand over her husband's.

* * *

In the meantime, Shigeru's predicament had hardly improved at all. By all measures it had only grown worse. When the evening had begun, Shigeru had understood that Hikari and Haruka both hated each other. By the end of the walk back to Haruka and Masato's home, it was also apparent that both girls were also completely insane, and intent on hiding it as thinly as possible.

To be fair, though, Haruka hadn't done anything more particularly insane than to form a crush on him. Why, no, _how _this had happened, Shigeru couldn't say. He'd barely spent any time with her though he did see her several times a day, and he knew himself incapable of sending out any signals that would lead her to think that he saw her as anything more than a friend.

The awkward trio had now returned to Haruka's home and taken seats around the central fire pit. After warming up some tea, the conversation had dwindled and left Shigeru feeling distinctly surreal. He hadn't consciously how much Satoshi _grounded _him in this place, but now that he understood it, he couldn't stand to be away from him. However, it couldn't be helped. Shigeru was still stuck at a dinner party, no matter how much he didn't want to be, and the girls were watching him underneath lidded eyes. He put down his tea and swallowed.

"So..." he began, "Why.. uh... why are you here, anyway, Hikari?"

She preened.

"I just realized that I hadn't had a chance to spend any time with you or _Satoshi-" _Hikari put strange and unneeded emphasis on the word, "-for several weeks. I'm not the Chief Priestess, but my role in Alph still involves me with many aspects of the temple, and I suppose that carries over to taking care of our visitors as well."

"Hmm," said Shigeru, pretending to assent, when actually wanting to do the opposite. It was obvious that Hikari had some other reason for being there, but he still didn't know what it was. "Well, Hikari, thank you, for umm, for _taking notice _of us_."_

"It's the least I could do," she answered, her voice low like a purr.

Haruka harrumphed from beside him. "The least you could do is help with something practical, rather than just coming over like this and eating my brother's and my food."

Hikari's eyes flashed, but her smile stayed sticky-sweet. "Practical? I'm putting _you_ upin my own home."

"Yes, it's so very kind of you," said Haruka. Then, she turned away from Hikari completely. "Shigeru," she asked, "I need to step out for a moment. Would you like me to get you some more tea?"

Shigeru looked down and realized that he had downed his entire goblet already.

"Yeah, sure," he answered.

Haruka stood.

"I'll be right back with some more herbs for the kettle," she said, and quickly exited the room.

As soon as she was gone, Hikari underwent two dramatic changes. First, she seemed to relax; secondly, her smile turned slightly wicked. Although it didn't make Shigeru feel particularly _settled, _the minor transformation alone didn't prepare him for what she had to say.

"So, Shigeru," she asked. "Do you_ like _her?"

Shigeru's eyebrows raised, and for a moment he was astounded, but after collecting himself, he answered coolly, "If I did, why would I tell you?"

Hikari put on a pout.

"It's just curiosity. It's not like the information would hurt anyone."

"Hikari, you're obviously not skilled at manipulating people, so let me help you out: the fact that you mentioned information hurting people doesn't encourage me to tell you anything."

"So you do like her?"

"I didn't say that."

"I mean, you're around her every day and she's not _completely _ugly."

"Not _completely _ugly?" mimicked Shigeru, unable to help himself.

"Yes, but only just," answered Hikari shortly.

Shigeru looked at Hikari through his bangs. Her curiosity had made _him _curious. Why had she brought this conversation up? What were her motives? It was obviously not out of concern for Haruka, and from the way her voice inflected when she spoke, Shigeru was also fairly certain that her questions weren't coming from a secret desire for him, either. What other reasons could there possibly be? At end, Shigeru settled in his confusion and decided to not answer Hikari at all. She didn't seem content to let the conversation settle, however.

"Since you're too busy staring into space to answer my question," she interrupted him, "I'll ask you another one. What about Satoshi?"

Shigeru replied quickly, "What about him?"

"Does _he_ like Haruka?"

He grit his teeth. "What does it matter?"

"You sound defensive," Hikari pointed out.

"If I sound defensive, it's because you're asking me questions that are both personal and irrelevant to you."

She put her hands out, again as if she were pleading for innocence in spite of behaving completely opposite. "I'm not asking for gossip here," she told Shigeru. "Just information."

"But what do you need it for?" Shigeru insisted.

Hikari's reply was interrupted by a voice from the door.

"Yes, Hikari," said Haruka as she stood against the door-frame with a tray of tea balanced in her hands. Her expression was thoroughly pissed - and fortunately, though not surprisingly, all of her loathing was aimed at her underling. "Why don't you explain to us, Hikari, why you need to be informed of anything?"

"I'm figuring out what I need to do. I like to make informed decisions."

"And what does that even mean?" asked Shigeru.

Hikari ignored him flatly, not breaking eye contact with Haruka. "It means I'm going to _do something _about _things."_

Haruka's free hand curled into a fist as she answered in a low voice, "Hikari, what gives you a right to assume that you're the one who gets to do anything?"

Shigeru abruptly realized that he was in the midst of a secret conversation. For once, he had no idea what to do about it, but to listen and try to find a clue that would explain to him why he wasn't allowed to know what was going on.

Having come up with an answer for Haruka, Hikari set her shoulders and declared, "I'm only second to _you, _Miss Priestess. I know what needs to be done for Alph. And by essence of my femininity, I have just as much right as you to go forward and try for _you-know-what_. I already know that _you _are going for it."

Haruka had been in the midst of placing the tea tray on the ground, but at Hikari's final word her handle slipped and the tea set rattled as it clattered the final inch to the floor. Something in Haruka was radiating a negative vibe. He'd seen this before in other women - his sister, mainly - and just the memory made him flinch, and he found himself scooting back away from the circle in the middle of the room, and toward the wall.

Meanwhile, Haruka had moved in on Haruka, and Shigeru made out her low growl: "We are not going to have this conversation right now."

Hikari's response also came out snarly. "Then when are we going to have it? I don't want to miss my chance, and even you have to agree that time isn't infinite."

"I do _not _agree!" protested Haruka. But Hikari stepped in even closer to her and began to speak in a voice that Shigeru couldn't quite make out. Which was frustrating, because despite his body language, he really did want to know what the girls were talking about. He began to sort through possibilities; to deduce the topic of conversation. There weren't that many things that pertained to Shigeru, really. But the way that Haruka and Hikari were avoiding mentioning anything but vague generalities made it obvious that they were talking one of the three things that _did _have to do with Shigeru: that is, himself, Satoshi, or the Unown.

Which brought him back to another point: he and Satoshi still didn't know any more about the Unown or the city of Alph than they had since their first introduction to the topic, nearly a month before. It had been clear that there was a prophecy, and that he and Satoshi were tied into it. He'd wanted to research the topic further, but hadn't. Why? Was it possible that he didn't even want to know the answer?

Suddenly, Haruka let out a yell. Shigeru looked up abruptly, just in time to see Haruka lunge at Hikari and miss. She fell in a sprawl on top of the now luke-warm pot of tea, and as the ceramic cracked, tea spurt out and soaked the floor along with her blouse and hair. Hikari laughed cruelly, and this caused her enemy to emit a rather primal scream, and in a fit of incredibly fury, she got to her feet and had Hikari by the hair. At this, Hikari let out her own high-pitched wail and clawed at Haruka, who let go but leapt for her again, nearly tackling her to the ground.

Across the room, Shigeru backed up against the wall and wished -- sincerely, powerfully, deeply wished -- that he could be anywhere else instead.

* * *

The meal was finally over; the conversation had come to a comfortable close. Takeshi was picking up their last dishes, humming lightly under his breath. As Kasumi got up and stretched, Satoshi stood up as well, bumping into the table. He nearly knocked over his glass of juice - which he had partially neglected due to its strange, spicy flavor - but he was quite thirsty, so he chugged it back quickly.

"Did you like the meal?" she asked him.

Satoshi looked at the several empty dishes rather pointedly.

"It was _amazing. Incredible._ Takeshi's a great cook. I haven't had any food like that for a long time..." He related the pleasing, but fairly meager, portions that Haruka served him and Shigeru at breakfast and dinner. "They're just not very strong-tasting, you know? It's possible that she's underfeeding her brother as well," Satoshi finished. "Maybe that's why he's so unpleasant."

"Masato, right? I feel bad for him. He lives with two girls... Maybe that's the problem," said Kasumi.

"If he were a healthy young man, living with girls would _hardly _be a problem!" Takeshi replied, a hint of a familiar leer crossing his face.

Satoshi laughed, a little louder than he meant to. Kasumi rolled her eyes and waddled from the room, swatting at her husband before she left with dishes in her arms.

"How is it for you?" asked Takeshi, shifting the topic slightly. "Living in Alph is probably different compared to... wherever you're from."

"It's really different, but everyone's been good to me and Shigeru. So I think about that instead. Like Haruka and Masato... they gave up their house for us, you know. I'm very grateful about that. But also, I'm really glad that it's just Shigeru and I living together," Satoshi confided to Takeshi. "It's helped us to become better friends."

Takeshi looked at him curiously. "You weren't friends before you came to Alph?"

"We were friends a long time ago; best friends! But then we weren't friends, and then we were again, but something happened, so then we weren't again... But we're friends now. Again."

"It sounds complicated," Takeshi surmised.

"Shigeru is really complicated," Satoshi agreed. He could feel his smile dropping quickly. Talking about Shigeru made him_ think_ about Shigeru and now he realised that he hadn't seen Shigeru for a while.

He scrambled to his feet. However, no sooner than he stood, did he try to step forward, and banged his shin against the edge of the table. Takeshi was at his side before Satoshi even registered the pain.

"Are you all right?" he queried, his voice thick with concern.

Satoshi winced, clutching at his stinging shin.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The table was just... much closer than I remember it being. I don't know why I was in such a hurry."

He looked up from his leg, and saw that Kasumi had come back in the room. She was watching him with a crooked brow. Satoshi squinted, trying to see it more clearly, but her face wouldn't come into focus.

"Are you going to be able to get home okay?" asked Takeshi.

"Of course! I remember the route perfectly!" Satoshi threw up a peace sign. He smiled as well, but the smile quickly gave way to a look of confusion. He looked around himself, and he was surprised to notice that the room seemed much less sharp than it had been only a few minutes before.

"Umm, Takeshi... Where's your door?"

* * *

Any hopes of the situation improving had long since been abandoned to despair. Shigeru had only one hope: to be unnoticed.

He held his cup of tea aloft and watched the scene around him.

_This is why I don't like women,_ he thought to himself, or tried to, anyway; his thoughts were drowned out by the yelling and shrieking as Hikari and Haruka chased each other across the room.

* * *

Satoshi had found the door, and after being trailed a little of the way by Takeshi, he was now forced to find the way back to his home by himself. Satoshi didn't grieve that in particular: he knew exactly what part of Alph that he'd been left in. What he _didn't _know was why he had caught himself wandering off in the wrong direction at least once.

In spite of this, he was otherwise content. And even a little bit... fuzzy.

At last he found himself back at the house. The voices that were coming from inside seemed a little loud, but maybe that was just his imagination? Curious, he pushed aside the mat curtain that dropped over the doorway -- only to find that no one was eating dinner. Satoshi blinked to re-orient himself. He must have had them closed for too long, because as soon as he opened his eyes, he beheld that Shigeru had already gotten to his feet and was striding to the door.

"Let's go!" Shigeru insisted, herding out Satoshi through the doorway again. "Now!"

Satoshi didn't even glance behind before he backed up and re-exited the room. Haruka and Hikari didn't even seem to notice that he was leaving, nor had they apparently noticed him coming in; they were too busy pulling each others' hair and kicking over the dishes with their bare and ankleted feet. Then, the straw mat of the door rolled in front of Satoshi, and the night was back around him again.

"What was that all about?" asked Satoshi, horrified. Shigeru took him by the arm and led him away from the door with a rather desperate stride.

"I was sitting there the whole time and I don't have a clue," he told Satoshi, "Those girls have some _deep-seated issues_. I don't know how you lived with them for as long as you did."

"Well," said Satoshi, speculatively, "I never had to live with the two of them together at once. I really lucked out, huh?"

"Clearly," Shigeru agreed. They were finally out of sight of Haruka and Masato's home; he let out a deep breath that he hadn't known he was holding, in fear of the girls becoming aware of his absence and chasing after him. "I'm so glad that's over. But what do we do now?"

Satoshi blinked several times to clear his vision. He wasn't sure _what _was over, exactly.

"Let's walk around," he found himself saying.

"I guess," shrugged Shigeru. "Where do you want to go?"

"I'm not sure," Satoshi answered. "Not sure."

"You look kind of tired."

"Oh. Well, I _am _kind of tired, but I don't want to go back, really, so..." Satoshi trailed off at Shigeru's bizarre expression. It felt as if Shigeru was observing him, analyzing him, trying to pick him apart with his eyes.

"What?" he asked Shigeru.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes!" Satoshi answered defensively, "I'm completely, fu, _fine._"

"You're red."

"I am not, I-"

Shigeru leaned in and bent down near Satoshi's face, and Satoshi's thought processes broke apart completely. For a moment, he had the most absurd thought that Shigeru was going to _kiss _him -- and why would a boy kiss a boy, anyway!? -- but it had been a false alarm. Shigeru was merely sniffing his breath, and wrinkling his nose. As he leaned away, Satoshi felt a hole in the pit of his stomach.

"Have you been drinking?" Shigeru asked.

Satoshi looked at him uncomprehendingly.

"Have you had some alcohol?" Shigeru reiterated.

"I don't know. Maybe?"

Shigeru rolled his eyes, and took out his leather flask.

"Here's some water," he suggested.

Next thing that Satoshi knew, his face was being pressed into water -- no; water was being pressed against the mouth part of his face. He opened his mouth and aimed it at the lip of the flask. But he missed somehow, and his mouth smooshed against the side of the pouch. But his hand was already lifting up the canister, so the water poured right around it, passing around the ends of his upturned mouth in rivulets. He looked up at Shigeru helplessly.

"You're a mess," said Shigeru. To Satoshi's surprise, there was a hint of affection in it.

Satoshi managed to take a messy sip, and then he wiped off his upper lip with the back of his hand. He brought it to his lap and stared at it.

"I don't know why I feel so strange," complained Satoshi. "I think I'm sick."

"You're not sick, just slightly drunk."

Satoshi stared at Shigeru blankly. Or, he tried to stare, but once again, his eyes were wobbling.

"Drunk?" he asked. "I'm drunk? Juice made me drunk?"

"_No, _juice doesn't have alcohol so there's no way it could've gotten you drunk," Shigeru pointed out. "And besides, your breath smells like wine."

"Do you think I was drinking wine?"

Shigeru rolled his eyes, but he was grinning. "That's what I just said."

"I've never had wine before."

"Clearly, you've never been drunk before, either."

"Wow. I can't believe you know that," said Satoshi. "Hey, can we stop here?"

"Here?" Shigeru looked around like he was confused. "Where?"

Satoshi now showed his exasperation with Shigeru, and with a great roll of his eyes, pointed to the Trough. "We can sit _there," _he said. "On the side."

"Only if you're careful," said Shigeru, consenting. They sat down on the flat edge of the barrier, and silence settled over them-- but only for a moment, before Satoshi let out a gigantic burp.

Shigeru laughed. Something pleasant swelled in Satoshi at the rich, throaty sound of Shigeru's laughter. Even though Shigeru was laughing at him, he felt suddenly buoyant.

"I really like your laugh," Satoshi found himself saying. "Actually, I like your voice all the time. It's very cool. I wish I had a cool sounding voice. I still sound like a kid."

Shigeru's laughter abated, but he smiled at Satoshi haughtily. "You don't sound that much like a kid anymore - only when you whine," he said.

"What!" Satoshi cried. "You whine more than I ever do."

"I do not!"

"You pout!"

"It's not pouting, it's-- it's--"

"It's girly."

"It is not. And besides, you're short," concluded Shigeru triumphantly, and Satoshi, unable to think of a clever response, just stuck out his tongue at Shigeru.

Shigeru didn't reply in kind, so the conversation ended, and Satoshi leaned back his neck to look directly at the stars. It was the darkest night that he thought that he had ever seen. It was familiar and far, far more vast.

"Do you think that we'll ever get home?" he wondered aloud.

Shigeru turned to him slowly.

"I was thinking about that earlier, too," he answered. "And... I don't know."

"I don't really feel like going back," admitted Satoshi. "I like it here."

"This place is easier, isn't it?" commented Shigeru. "There's something about this place that makes me forget about everywhere else."

"I like it here with you."

As soon as Satoshi said it, he was surprised. He hadn't even realized it, but it was true. He looked up to see Shigeru's face - to see what he thought about the pronouncement - but Shigeru was looking away from him.

Satoshi sighed. Even after a whole month together, he would never understand Shigeru, it seemed.

He looked up at the inky night sky and leaned back. However, he'd forgotten that there was nothing to lean against, and the air gave way too quickly for him to catch himself, and the next thing he knew, he had splashed into the irrigation stream and was soaking wet and his back was cold and his legs were sticking up in the air and he was staring face up at the stars, and at Shigeru, whose arms were held out an awkward angle, as if he had tried to catch Satoshi but missed.

Although he was sputtering water out from his mouth, a grin broke across Satoshi's face.

"You missed me," he accused Shigeru playfully.

Shigeru didn't deny it.

* * *

1: Nibi Town is "Pewter City" in Japanese.


	14. Chapter 14

In Japan, the slang term for a girl who likes slash pairings isn't very flattering. It has the meaning of "rotten tofu" in it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

**chapter fourteen**

* * *

"I'm sorry that we destroyed the house last night," began Haruka. Her voice cut apart the darkness, and Satoshi woke up patchily, blinking the sleep from his eyes. The wool of his blanket scratched around his legs, and the world glinted at him, bright and dully sharp like the blade of a rusty knife; his head was a complete mess and he felt too miserable to even speak.

"Good morning, Haruka," offered Shigeru from his side.

Satoshi turned his head on his straw pillow. Shigeru had also yet to get up from bed, but was transitioning from a semi-conscious sprawl with apparent ease. Satoshi didn't have the energy to get up; he didn't even have the energy to _stay _up. He let his neck buckle, and his head collapsed back onto his pillow; leaving him to listen unhappily as Shigeru dealt with Haruka.

Said priestess was answering Shigeru with a voice like bells. Loud, jangling, bells. "Good morning to you, too, Shigeru. Did you sleep well last night?"

"We did, but not for very long," Shigeru replied neutrally. "We got to bed late."

"Oh. That's true, isn't it. The whole, situation, well..." Haruka trailed off.

"Mmhmm?"

"It got out of hand."

"Yeah, what exactly happened?" asked Shigeru. "It was came out of nowhere."

"It did, but Hikari was looking forward to seeing both of you, and... she was really, _really_ looking forward to it. Her sense of disappointment might have been a bit disproportionate."

Shigeru's eyes danced with amusement; they flickered to Satoshi, and back to Haruka.

"I remember you tackling Hikari to the ground. You had her by the hair," Shigeru commented. Satoshi snorted into his pillow. He wished that he'd seen that.

"Oh, you saw," said Haruka, her voice somewhat discomfited. "I thought you'd already left before..."

"Yeah, we left, but only after I sat through maybe ten minutes of your... argument. Anyway, when Satoshi got back, we decided to take a walk and let you resolve things for yourselves," explained Shigeru. "Since you weren't there after we finished our walk, you two did work things out, right?"

"In a manner of speaking," said Haruka, rather evasively.

"Then consider it past," said Shigeru. "We won't bring it up. Right, Satoshi?"

"Nngh," rasped Satoshi, agreeing as tacitly as his headache would allow him. He looked up at Haruka and nodded blearily.

Haruka's shoulders dropped with her sigh of relief.

"Good, I'm glad," she said, and smiled sweetly. "In that case, I do have something to ask the both of you. Would you mind eating dinner late tonight?"

The topic of food - for perhaps the first time in Satoshi's life - repulsed him in every way. Yet again, he was thwarted from an ascent to waking; his stomach revolted in him. he shut his eyes tightly, clamped his hands over his ears, and tried his best to go back to sleep. He may have been successful. He couldn't be sure, but after an indeterminate time, his world became quieter. Then he felt Shigeru's foot nudging him in the back.

"Haruka's gone," Shigeru informed him. "There's breakfast."

"I'm not hungry." Satoshi half-heartedly swatted at the foot. "Stop kicking me. Anyway, I think I'm sick."

"Not kicking. And you're not sick, you're just hung over," Shigeru chuckled. Satoshi began to protest, but the laugh triggered Satoshi's memory. He paused as the memory came back to him: while they'd been sitting under the stars, he'd said something about liking Shigeru's laugh... It shouldn't have been so surprising. There were a lot of things that Satoshi liked about Shigeru; a_ lot._

His head hurt just thinking about it.

Shigeru had finished chuckling. When he spoke again, his voice sounded like he was mildly concerned.

"I'm going to get you some water," he said. "If you don't drink it, I'll pour it on you."

Satoshi cracked open his eyes. Shigeru was walking away with his back turned from him, and he was still clad only in his boxers. Sunlight poured in all around and framed Shigeru in gold. Satoshi felt something constricting in his chest.

"Water would be nice," he managed.

* * * * * *

It was the first white and grey-skied day that Shigeru had stood under since he'd been dropped onto the island of Alph. With the clouds came a break from the humid, salty, and relentlessly hot air. In place of the sultry heat, a warm wind whipped at his clothes and flogged his back as he stood with folded arms near the highest point of the island. Bird pokemon darted around the cliffs of the island, playing with each other. Even though they were giants, they seemed small from this height. So did the people of Alph, bustling through the city, finishing their daily tasks before dinner. Shigeru watched, noting their movements with interest He noted _everything _with interest. He was a researcher, after all; he lived to observe and study the world around him. He'd just -- forgotten about it for a while.

The reminder that he was a scientist had nearly blind-sided him that morning, when Haruka had extended an invitation to him and Satoshi to accompany her to the Temple. He had forgotten that he was living in the midst of an archaeological paradise; that the place where he slept was a place, in his other life, that he had only known existed by studying colored lines in the dirt. Shigeru knew that he'd gotten used to it. The temple, however, was special. It was still largely intact in his past, and the current future; when he had led his team at Alph, the Temple had been the nexus for their study of the Unown. One room within those old Temple walls had become the nexus point for the rest of his life as well.

He was still terrified of the place.

But the Temple was perhaps the most well-established and well-funded archaeological site among the three above-ground Ruins. This was due in no small part to Professor Hale's mysterious disappearance, which had, in turn, triggered the Greenfield Incident. In the following years, numerous teams - Shigeru's among them - flocked to the dune bound ruins to study the Unown. By the time that Shigeru had his accident, the rooms of the Temple - much like the rest of the site - had been largely explored, excavated, and documented. Post-excavation work like data analysis and interpretation were the only things really left to be done. Generally the work made Shigeru happy, though the solid days of research lacked the fleeting and cheap thrills that came with, well, bringing back the prehistoric dead and all that.

With such a history, Shigeru felt as familiar with the passages of the ruined Temple as he was sure Haruka felt familiar with the living one. He had walked the ruined corridors; puzzled its the wall panels and their strange hieroglyphics; read countless reports, and even written several of his own. He had walked the halls countless times in his sleep.

And so the past led to the present, and the present was the past. Haruka didn't know what she was offering Shigeru, because she couldn't, didn't _know _him. Her kind gesture meant more than just a break in the routine for him and Satoshi. It held the potential for a revival; the reinvention of himself a break-through researcher. If he could effectively translate what he observed at the living Alph to the data he had already gathered at the Ruins, his findings would make waves in the archaeological community, even outweighing the accomplishments of both his peers and his heroes. It would even make his grandfather proud.

Shigeru knew that his being able to enter the Temple must make him the luckiest man alive. But while life was on his mind, his body trembled with fear; he could not stop feeling like he had been sentenced to the gallows.

All of these thoughts, and excitements had been circling through Shigeru's brain, unhalting and tireless, as he had made his way to the Temple's entrance with Satoshi walking tightly alongside of him.

Satoshi, he'd discovered, hadn't experienced anything when it came to the Temple. He didn't even remember participating in a the conversation with Haruka that morning, in which she had invited them to see the Temple at twilight. Once he was told, he didn't get excited. Instead he scrunched up his eyebrows and looked at Shigeru with confusion as he walked along the path.

"I still don't get why we have to go to the Temple again," he complained. "It's just so far up_hill!_"

"Haruka invited us. Surely that's enough of a reason," parleyed Shigeru.

"Yeah, but _besides _that. I don't get why she would ask us to go with her. We're not priestesses, so it's not like we're doing anything there."

Shigeru briefly imagined him and Satoshi dressed like. It was rather shocking. Only after a long moment, he succeeded in clearing the image from his mind and confessed, "I'm not sure why she wants us to come. I didn't ask."

"Why not?"

"Because..." Because what? Because he was too scared to even think of being inside the Temple, too busy forming clever excuses to make himself go inside, that he didn't even think of why Haruka wanted him in there in the first place? At last Shigeru settled on, "I didn't think of it."

"Oh," said Satoshi.

"She probably just thought we'd find it interesting," Shigeru continued. "It's not like we had anything else to do, so why not have us come along?"

"You're probably right," said Satoshi affably. "I just was wondering if maybe it had to do with the legend."

Shigeru looked at him curiously as he wiped perspiration from his brow. "The legend... You mean the one that mentions us coming here?"

"Yeah. Last night when I was with Kasumi and Takeshi, they told me that we're supposed to save everyone. But they wouldn't tell me how we're supposed to do it."

"Probably because they're not sure themseles. If they knew, I don't think that they would keep it from you," said Shigeru. "They want to be saved. Not saying anything would be counter-productive."

"I guess so," said Satoshi, his voice distant. "If there was anything in the Temple, you think they'd have said something to us."

With a sigh, he folded his hands behind his head and stretched out for a moment before continuing up the trail sluggishly. Shigeru eyed him for a bit before guessing, "Are you still feeling bad?"

"I'm so tired," Satoshi complained. "My head hurt all morning and I had to work. And it's been so hot all day long...."

"You can take a break," Shigeru told him.

Satoshi's ego was visibly offended by the idea. "No, I'm fine," he replied, and pasted on a triumphant, 'I'm giving it my best!' champion smile. It didn't waver for the rest of the hike.

When they finally reached the top, it was immediately evident that the priestesses of Alph had already begun the evening work. Haruka stood facing the sunset, with her arm extended in front of her, measuring some distant point in the sky with her extended forefinger and thumb. the sun was casting low and nearly finished. Since the sky held clouds up against the sun, the horizon didn't glare, but softly faded as the night curtain fell around its edges. Haruka seemed similar to the sky, serene and graceful, like an old and timeless statue. He thought her beautiful in that moment, something like an abstract thought, formless and dreamlike. Half-sitting, half-stretching near Haruka's feet, Hikari, once again scantily-clad, fiddled with a long string of beads. There was no question that her body had appeal. Like and unlike his opinion of Haruka, Shigeru found her appearance striking, but he would have only considered Hikari attractive if he were insane - or if he had a regular male libido, which he thankfully did not. The fact that neither girls, or Satoshi for that matter, seemed to have any sense of social norms or people whose sexuality might be outside of those norms, Shigeru shied from making even a casual observation about what the girls were wearing, lest he be misinterpreted or molested. Instead, upon greeting them, he simply said: "Hey."

Satoshi approached the girls, too, with an excited greeting of his own. "What'cha doing..?"

"Just getting ready to open up the Temple," said Hikari, flashing him a wide smile.

"

Hikari's grin quickly turned to a pout. "I was really disappointed that I didn't get to see you yesterday."

"Yeah, I heard," said Satoshi. Shigeru sniggered, and turned to Haruka, whose stillness seemed more and more Grecian by the moment.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"I'm watching the moon rise. Once it becomes this far-" she demonstrated with her hand, "-from the sun, we can open the Temple doors. But no sooner."

"Will something bad happen?" wondered Shigeru.

"We've never had to find out." Saying this, she relaxed her arm and turned to Hikari. "The moon's touching, Hikari. You can start playing now."

Hikari picked herself up and approached a boulder. With a drawn-out sigh of exasperation, she turned from Haruka, faced the rock, and blew into a shrill flute -- once.

As soon as the note ended, a blue dot of light appeared on the rock. The light spread, glowing outwards and stretching its coverage, at first like a circle, but smoothly morphing into a rectangle, perhaps the shape of a door. Abruptly, the the slab face of the boulder vanished. The blue light fizzled out, and there _was _a doorway - not just the shape of one. Shigeru blinked to clear his eyes. The hole in the rock remained insubstantial, and to Shigeru, mystifying.

"The door, by its function, _has_ to actually exist. So it's the rock that doesn't exist, and it's just an illusion keeping the Temple entrance hidden by the Unown," he hypothesized. He'd never seen any Unown, never seen their power -- he had never seen them create an illusion.

"The Unown," Satoshi echoed Shigeru vaguely. He had a distant look in his eyes; like he was trying to remember something that bothered him.

Hikari meanwhile returned her flute to the carved wooden case that rested on her bare hip. Haruka had come to her side, with incenses and some pots in her arms.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" she asked almost impishly, then grandly turned with a clack of bangles and beads and sashayed into the cave. Shigeru hesitated, and was glad to notice that Satoshi had, as well.

"You know, Satoshi... We don't have to go in," Shigeru told him. "If you're still hung over..."

"Oh. I'm actually feeling much better," said Satoshi. His face was suddenly bright and eager again, whatever moment he'd been having passed and forgotten. "I wouldn't want to keep you from seeing the Temple. It'll probably benefit your research, won't it?"

The whole idea of Satoshi waiting for anything was ridiculous, but Shigeru didn't press him.

"Yeah, it will," he answered.

They went inside.

It took a few moments to adjust to the darkness, though not too long, as the night had already been gaining outside. Hikari and Haruka stood at the end of the cave's entry hall, near a massive rock-hewn doorway. Haruka was transferring the flame from her torch to a spare that had been set against the wall. Hikari was rubbing up and down the pale stretches of her arms, trying to soothe down the goosebumps. "Brrr," she said. "Brr-rr-rr."

Haruka replied indifferently, "I'm not going to feel bad because you're cold. You didn't even need to be wearing that outfit. I told you that if you wanted to help tonight, you could just wear your regular clothing."

"I'm a priestess!" answered Hikari, indignant, "I have to wear this clothing when I work."

"But you're not doing any work today. I am."

"Whatever. You're just jealous that your outfit isn't as cute as mine."

Shigeru didn't know how it was possible for the girls to be so caustic to each other so constantly. He knew that they had been forced to live in close quarters for a month now. While he wasn't foolish or idealistic enough to think that this would immediately serve them as a great friendship, surely after a month's time he would've expected the girls to have given up on expressing this much open animosity and to have found some new way of dealing with their mutual dislike. It wasn't an unreasonable expectation. He certainly didn't like Kenji, and was sarcastic to him whenever they were in the same room, but it was also completely exhausting and wore on his nerves - he tended to ignore Kenji in order to save his sanity.

Haruka and Hikari really had no more than one reason: their behavior ultimately had to be a 'girl thing.'

He and Satoshi were led out of the entry hall, where the cavern seemed to split into two directions. Torches on the wall pointed both ways, like flaming beacons. They were to be the only guides for Satoshi and Shigeru: Haruka explained that she and Hikari would be going left, to prepare for communing with Protectors. This was something that they had to do alone, but Satoshi and Shigeru could take the bend to the right, and 'look around' until the priestess work came to a close.

Thus, the tour began before it had a chance to begin, and Shigeru and Satoshi were left behind with only the memory of apologetic smiles and an eyeful of sashaying hips.

They hadn't quite disappeared before Satoshi, with bright eyes, asked him, "Wanna explore?" Without waiting for an answer, he charged ahead through the darkness.

"I don't remember you being so excited about exploring Alph," pointed out Shigeru. "You never seemed really to care much about what was going on around you."

"But I'd already seen stuff like that before," said Satoshi. "I'd been to those old historic villages on school field trips... When I was traveling with my pokemon... I've been to some old wooden temples, but it's kind of different. This is really, really, really old."

"It is not," said Shigeru, agitated. "The place we're in could hardly have been sculpted out 200 years ago." Holding up the torch, he lit the space around them, and saw.

The inside of the Temple revealed a hollowed-out and floored cavern; more tame than wild - just as Shigeru remembered it. There were no impressive, towering stalactites, or crystallized formations that sparkled when hit by the light. The walls all stood in straight-backed charcoal stoniness, appearing dull and even soft to the touch, like river-beaten stones. The gaping mouth of the entryway led only to two winding paths initially: Shigeru knew that the left passage branched off into four portions, forming grids of rooms. He couldn't see them yet; when lit by the unevenly spaced torchlight, the ends of the esophagus-like path was lost to shadows. There were many things he could sense already, and most of them were unpleasant. The briny, musty air stretched between the damp walls, and Shigeru's nose wrinkled at its mildewy smell. The loneliness gathered, also, as he and Satoshi walked, and the pita-pat slap of their sandals echoed down the cavernous halls.

Satoshi was several steps ahead of Shigeru, his head straining even ahead of himself as he peered into the darkness.

"I wonder where this hall goes," he thought aloud.

"If I remember correctly, in about another minute's walk, it branches into a network of about fifty rooms," Shigeru told him.

"What do you mean 'remember correctly'?" asked Satoshi. A teasing smile on his face underlit the excitement of adventure dancing in his eyes. "Didn't you used to come here all the time for your research?"

"I haven't been inside since I was fifteen," said Shigeru, voice huffy.

Satoshi turned to look back at him, as if expecting to receive an explanation or a story, but Shigeru just grit his teeth and looked straight ahead. He'd make a mistake in mentioning _anything _connected to this place and to his research, but it was better for both of them if that subject, among certain others were left untouched.

"You know, it's kind of spooky here," said Satoshi, leaning up to Shigeru as they walked. He spoke in a sotto voice. "It's too quiet, you know? Because no one else is here. Why do you think we're here? Do you think that we're supposed to be here for something?"

"I don't think so. She just told me that she'd noticed that I had an interest in life at Alph, and so she thought I'd enjoy coming here for a new perspective."

"Yeah, okay. But if the priestesses are the only one who can usually come in, then maybe there's more."

"Of course," agreed Shigeru. "My guess is that Haruka let us in because of the legend."

"I just wish we knew what that legend even says," complained Satoshi.

"Maybe we'll find some clues about it while we're here," said Shigeru, and Satoshi seemed content to drop the topic there. It was with good timing, as they had just arrived at the edge of the Temple rooms.

Unlike the unrelentlessly grey hallway, the stone-hewn doorway, and the space within its boundaries, too, was tinted green with moss.

"Let's go in!" Satoshi declared, and before Shigeru could even open his mouth, Satoshi passed from his sight. Shigeru followed him cautiously, even retracing Satoshi's footsteps for several paces - mimicking the footfalls exactly - before he felt extremely foolish and ashamed of his rapidly beating heart. What was he doing? He was safe here. Haruka had given them permission to come inside, he reminded himself. And while the Orange Islands' ancient peoples were notorious for booby-trapping their sacred sites, it was not so with the friendly, peaceful people of Alph.

He watched Satoshi, who was studying a wall with a light and curious gaze, and he swallowed. The fear that was stretching across the back of his neck like a web was his own fear, and he had no one and nothing else to blame. He would deal with it on his own --

if he could deal with it at all.

* * *

A/N: Sorry it's short, but I'm almost done with the next chapter, and just felt like the story broke up into sections better this way. You'll see what I mean next time.


	15. Chapter 15

This was probably the most difficult thing I've ever written, but I hope you enjoy it. thanks to greenflower, my beta reader and dear friend.

**In Ruins**  
Chapter Fifteen

* * *

Satoshi had been eleven years old when he first came across the excavation of a giant Aerodactyl fossil, with its wings splayed against the side of a wall. He'd never seen Alph before that day, much less heard of it. But he was familiar with the that the scientists had run around the rock with ready hands and eager mouths, quick to discuss and discover their findings. Even back in those days, it had made Satoshi think of Shigeru at the back of his mind - because Shigeru had acted the same as them, sometimes. They would be watching television in Daisy's room while she was taking her night classes, and Shigeru would see a commercial that he knew someting about and he'd start talking. Just like that. It could be something as simple as the taste of Moo-Moo milk - and he would lose himself to rambles about the way it tasted and how it was manufactured, like he even _knew something about it_. Since they'd come to Alph together, Shigeru had started doing it again. They'd be walking along quietly and suddenly Shigeru would whirl like a pinwheel, overwhelming with all sorts of observations, like how to read the marble sundial that had been erected in the middle of Alph's market plaza. Satoshi didn't understand half of what Shigeru was saying most of the time, but he liked it when Shigeru got that way. Because this is what made Shigeru himself. It made him seem happy, and relaxed. It made Satoshi feel like he was a kid again, like the world had nothing bad in it.

Why didn't he have that feeling now?

Without the sun or a watch to guide him, Satoshi could only guess that they had been wandering through rooms and corridors for thirty minutes, but it could have been two hours, or even a day, but it was long enough to give Satoshi reason to ask Shigeru what was wrong.

"Nothing," Shigeru answered simply. He stood from his crouch near a wall, and sighed. "It's not important."

If it were nothing, why was he sighing? Why did his voice sound so different from what he was saying?

"Well, you don't seem like you're enjoying yourself," pointed out Satoshi. "I thought you were going to have a lot of fun here, you know?"

"_You _don't seem to be having fun," rebutted Shigeru. "I thought you liked adventure."

"All we've seen are empty rooms," he replied. "No clues about the legend, much less anything interesting."

Shigeru folded his arms. "Exactly."

"Exactly?" Satoshi echoed in surprise. They walked into the corridor. Shigeru rubbed the back of his neck, and looked at Satoshi apologetically.

"Okay, so I know this hasn't been really interesting for you. I thought there was going to be more, too. So if there's nothing in the next room," suggested Shigeru, "Then we'll just leave and wait for Haruka and Hikari outside of here. How's that?"

"Yeah, sure," replied Satoshi, following after him. "So what's this next room?"

"The Main Room. Like its name would suggest, it's bigger, more complicated, and more central than any other room inside the Temple complex. We've been working our way toward it this whole time, room by room. There's also a big puzzle on one of it walls."

"I've heard about those. I think I watched a special on TV about them once."

Shigeru didn't reply. The long shadows spreading out from his torch pulled and smeared at the normal lines of his face, skewing the normal shape of his features, making him look almost unfamiliar. At last his steps slowed, and for good reason, as the hallway abruptly ended. There was a double-door, surprisingly; all of the rooms up to that point hadn't been affixed with doors, similar to the rest of Alph. The doors to the room were beautiful, too; crafted out of cedar wood and carved up with similar designs to the one Tano-san had shown them, which he and Shigeru had used for decorating cups and vases and plates. When Shigeru pushed against it, it creaked open on its hinges without resistance.

Musty air poured out into the humid hallway, and the room - at first - seemed like nothing more than a gigantic void, absent of light, form, _anything_.

Satoshi cringed, but Shigeru strode in through the door. He turned deftly beside the doorframe, his muscles remembering what his eyes could not see; he found an unlit torch against the wall, and passed his own flame over its' head. More torches were found, and two spots of light quickly became four. As the flames expanded, so did their halos, steadily reaching out to the cornerstones of the far walls.

"Wow," said Satoshi, his voice impressed. "How big is this room, anyway?"

"200 square meters, roughly." Shigeru set the torch against the wall, freeing his hands to explore. He stepped forward and brushed past Satoshi, his eyes rapidly scanning the corners and crevices of the room. "...Our team speculated that this place was used for the performance of the main rituals."

"Oh. Well, that room has to be somewhere else, doesn't it? After all, Haruka and Hikari are performing the rituals right now, aren't they?" Satoshi pointed out.

Shigeru didn't appear to have heard. He continued to look around, his eyes wild and darting; his footwork circular and short-stepped. Satoshi looked around himself, too, though his observations weren't as exacting as he imagined that Shigeru's were. He was playing the part of the adventurer, not the archaeologist: sure, the ceilings in this room were slightly more vaulted and the floor stretched out a lot wider in each direction, but what else? He moved towards the walls, stamped with a bizarre writing that Shigeru had called hieroglyphics. It had fascinated him in the first room, but he is admittedly less impressed now that he'd seen it in so many rooms, all of it indistinguishable.

There were significantly more of them on the walls here compared to the other rooms, and some of them seemed - he squinted, wishing he had a flashlight to shine more light on them - some of them looked like pokemon. This, at last, piqued his interest. He spent several minutes making stories from the pictures before Shigeru broke the silence of the room.

"There was another theory, of course," Shigeru said abruptly, "Some of my colleagues guessed that this room was used as a storage facility."

Satoshi turned from the writing on the wall. "But... it's neither of those things. It's empty."

"I know," said Shigeru, frustration evident in his voice. "_I know. _It seems exactly the same now as it was when we excavated it." Shigeru stopped moving for a moment, and fixed his eyes on Satoshi sharply before he continued pacing. Again, Satoshi thought to himself, this wasn't like Shigeru. Usually he got excited talking about his research, or archaeology, or anything, even _goofy_.

Instead, he just kind of looked sick.

"I had hoped that we'd find flower offerings, or fur pelts draped across the floor," Shigeru continued. "Perhaps jewels or riches lost to time. Maybe scrolls of sacred writings. But just look around. The room's exactly the same as when the first team of archaeologists discovered the Ruins-- about five years before you came to Alph, Satoshi. There'd been no looting, and that's probably just because there'd been nothing for looters to take."

"There's still something on the ground over there," interrupted Satoshi. He pointed to the far wall, where a chest hewn of stone sat stately firm.

Shigeru waved it off. "That still exists in the Temple in our time, too. It's a box filled with poke-dolls; there's nothing interesting in there." Suddenly, his voice sharpened, and he curled a hand into a fist. "This was a waste of time."

"Well, we wouldn't have known that if we hadn't come," Satoshi countered. He had bent down to open the chest, but stopped when he realized that Shigeru had stopped pacing, and now stood stiffly near the center of the room.

"It's kind of clammy in here," said Shigeru, his voice tight and at the edge of a whine. He sounded several years younger than he was. "Do you feel that draft?"

"No," answered Satoshi. He stood and approached Shigeru. They were almost at the same height, he realized; his eyes flickered across Shigeru's face, bent over and indiscernible. Torchlight cast a glow on half his features, the peak of his nose and the crest of his forehead, his cheekbones, and the shadows covered the rest. His feathered auburn bangs were moving slightly across his face even as he stood still - perhaps there was a draft after all.

"Stop staring at me," said Shigeru. he flattened the back of his hair twice, fidgeted with his collar, and finally dropped his hand to his side.

"What's wrong?" Satoshi asked baldly.

"Nothing's wrong. Why would you think anything was wrong?" Like it had all evening, Shigeru's voice betrayed him. But this time it was too high, and it sounded like he wasn't able to breathe.

"Shigeru," he worried. "You seem sick."

"I'm not. But we... We should go."

Satoshi furrowed his brow. "What? Go where?"

Shigeru answered him impatiently, tapping his foot. "Out of the_ Temple_. There's nothing left to see here. We should go."

Satoshi looked at Shigeru, trying to understand. But there was little he could absorb but movement. Shigeru was absently rubbing down goosebumps on his forearms, wringing his hands, shoving them into his pockets, staring into space.

"Okay," Satoshi said. "Let's go."

But Shigeru didn't seem to have heard. He was _muttering _to himself.

"We should leave," he was saying. His voice was barely audible, but with the room quiet and empty, it resonated clearly enough. "We really should be leaving..."

"_Shigeru," _Satoshi interrupted forcibly, "Are you sure you're not sick?"

Shigeru's his hands faltered briefly, as they moved steadily up and down his arms. He scowled, but at least he looked up at Satoshi. "I told you that I'm not."

"But you're acting really weird," Satoshi insisted.

"I am not!" Shigeru snapped.

"You do. And you look freaked out."

"Well maybe I _am_," he retorted. "Did you ever think about that?"

"But why--"

Then, Shigeru shocked him completely; he curled his fists and shouted, "Why? _Why?_ Fuck you, Satoshi! I don't have to tell you anything!"

The echoes of the words clattered against the walls. After the last echo splintered into silence, Satoshi remembered how to breathe. He stared at Shigeru, his mouth gaping, feeling the whip crack in his stomach.

Reality swirled in on him -- not the reality of the present, of Alph, but of the world that still felt like his own -- and for a shuttered moment, he vividly remembered everything that had come before. He'd forgotten that Shigeru had denied his friendship twice after they becoming friends. He should've known that Shigeru wasn't capable of being sincere. That Shigeru really still hated him, that their friendship had only been surface-level, after all; that, under the thin skin that had grown over their scabs, there had been this burrowing, purple maggot of distrust and anger.

But he didn't want to believe it.

"What the hell," Satoshi spoke, and his voice rose with every word, "What - the - _hell_! I thought we were_ friends_."

"Look, I..." Shigeru's face warred with itself. A grimace won out. "We're friends."

"Then act like it!" Satoshi demanded. He felt his voice drop, the hurt weighing it down, as he added, "I'm just trying to help you."

Shigeru couldn't speak for a few moments, too busy breathing raggedly. When he spoke at last, his voice had hurt in it too.

"You can't help me. Not here," he said, like it pained him. Satoshi couldn't figure out where the pain would've come from; why he was angry, sick, and sad, as well - it didn't make sense.

"Is there something going on?" asked Satoshi, slowly. "Is there something I should know about? Did Haruka say something to you earlier while I was sleeping?"

"This isn't about Haruka."

"Then what--"

But Satoshi cut himself off. He was distracted by a sound from the hallway, a sound that could only be described as footfalls.

_Footfalls?_

Satoshi shivered: he felt the clammy hand of the draft of air that Shigeru had been talking about. Some sort of fear had hooked onto his vocal chords, had muffled them. He was still several feet away from Shigeru, but could not bring himself to speak in his full voice.

"Did you hear that?" he asked Shigeru, in a stage whisper. "Do you think that was the girls?"

"Why would you ask it if you doubted it?" Shigeru replied sharply.

"Because Haruka and Hikari... they would've been more obvious, right? Trying to get our attention or something."

Shigeru didn't say anything.

"I thought we were supposed to be the only three people here."

"Well, I guess we're not."

"Then who was it?" wondered Satoshi. "Why don't I feel like it was them?"

Shigeru still wouldn't meet Satoshi's eyes. He appeared to be trembling.

Satoshi reached out a hand towards Shigeru's arm, but his fingers never made it to the sleeve. The other boy stepped back from him, with halting steps. Then without warning, he bolted from the room.

* * * *

"Shigeru!" Satoshi shouted after him. He stilled, then abruptly swung around, ready to fight an unnamed and inexplicable assailant. But when he turned, there was nothing behind him; the room was the same as it had been but a minute earlier when Shigeru had run out. It was still empty.

Things were weird. He had never seen someone act as strangely as Shigeru had, and now he was gone. Satoshi felt his heartbeat accelerate as he realized that he was worried. He had no idea what Shigeru was going to do, where he was going.

He ran out of the room, leaving the torch behind.

"Hey! Shigeru!" he shouted, turning into the dark hallway. "Where are you!? Stop and talk to me!_ Hey! Shigeru!!_"

The shouts didn't miraculously pull Shigeru out of the dark. Cursing, Satoshi took a moment's pause to choose left or right, and opted with the direction from which they'd come. If Shigeru was running, it would make sense that he'd run down a familiar path.

The intermittent lights were yellow specks, guiding him from the ground that sometimes he could not see. It felt like he was running through space, through time, through some corridor that may not even truly have matter. He tried not to focus on how hard it was to run in sandals, or how the air was so thick and clingy with wetness that it felt as if he were swimming, rather than running, through its hold. He thought instead of finding Shigeru, and how he would do that if Shigeru didn't answer his shouts. Would Shigeru be running after, or away from the footsteps? And why, in the first place, were there footsteps? Whose were they? And what was going on?

He passed under a torch, and just as he hit it evenly, and his shadow shot out directly beside him, he heard a shout.

It was Shigeru, it had to be. Satoshi barreled down the passageway leading left. Eventually, the firelight faded into darkness behind him. He hoped he could gauge the distance right, that he wouldn't run directly into a wall; and he worried that Shigeru was hurt, and his heart pummeled him from inside of his chest.

"Shigeru!" he shouted into the darkness. There was no reply. He tried again. "Shigeru! Where are you?!"

He ran directly into a wall.

The blow took him so off-guard that he fell backward onto the ground. He collapsed onto the rock, and the second bite of pain hit him harder than the first. He heard the skin on his elbows peel back as they are skinned, but the feeling of being smashed overwhelmed him.

Satoshi let out a groan as he inhaled unsteadily. The movement has made him dizzy, but there was no light to see whether the world had begun to spin around him or not; he felt himself losing focus and black was black and his arms had hit the wall first, hadn't they? He got to his feet shakily recounting the collision; he could feel the full throb of his shoulder and guessed that he must have rolled his arm forward, catching it with the side of his body rather than taking the hit directly with his head or chest. The ache was stretching out from there like a bubble of gum, reaching across his ribs and swelling outward. But he had to keep going - had to turn around and find Shigeru. Satoshi grit his teeth and put one hand to his temple, avoiding the part which was tender, and stretched out his other hand to support himself against the wall.

He got to his feet, eyes squeezing shut to clear his mind. When he opened them, he blinked back the darkness, and saw at the end of the hall a dimly glowing blue light.

Satoshi's breath choked back in his throat.

He'd been worried about Shigeru. He hadn't thought to be afraid for himself. And maybe he should've been thinking of fear ever since they'd arrived. Satoshi thought back on Shigeru's jumpy, strange behavior in the Main Room, and tried to cast it in that light. What if Shigeru had been telling the truth, that he wasn'tsick; that he'd just been scared?

But when Shigeru had been acting that way, they hadn't even heard the footsteps yet.

"Shigeru!" he called out again, as he approached the room. The blue light glowed out from its entrance like the signal atop a light house. There was no way of knowing if Shigeru would be inside of it, but the light was so out of place that it compelled Satoshi forward.

He stepped through the doorway and into the light.

He stood for a moment, transfixed and confused. He blinked to let his eyes adjust, but before his eyes could even re-focus fully, the blue had vanished. In his vision, shapes clarified themselves from not blue, but white. A glare was formed by three industrial-sized spotlights. They stood on tripods, with long cords snaking to some distant wall. Then he saw a huge ladder, on its side, along with various illuminated rubble - boxes overturned, their contents spilled onto the floor. And then, a tall, broad-shouldered man in a white lab coat facing all of it, his profile in shadow.

The dizziness from hitting the wall had no competition to the confusion and shock that churned inside Satoshi now, as he stood in what seemed like the future. Rather, it seemed like the past.

"Hey!" Satoshi managed after a moment. "You--"

The man turned around and raised his eyebrows.

"Satoshi," he said in greeting. Satoshi saw the shadows slide back from his face, and the memories returned.

He knew this scientist: tall, with short, spiky black hair, that same orange turtleneck, and a crooked smile. They'd met in a lab several years earlier, when he, Takeshi, and Kasumi had first come to visit the Ruins of Alph. Together, they'd saved a herd of Omanyte and Omastar that was living in one of the reservoirs. Satoshi had heard Kasumi sighing over how cute he was once or twice, but after the visit, his name had never been brought up again-- until, he remembered belatedly -- until a month ago, when Shigeru had spoken the word in the middle of a nightmare.

He should've realized that Shigeru and Foster must have worked together; the Ruins weren't that big, after all. He felt like an idiot.

"Hello Foster," said Satoshi, warily. "What are you doing here?"

"Just working. You know how it is," he said, stepping over a shadowed pile of the rubble. All the shapes stuck out at angles, crumbly, hard, and soft. The soft line caught Satoshi's eye - it wasn't rock, he realized belatedly, and his heart stopped in his chest: it was an arm. It was Shigeru's, and Satoshi's heart stopped inside his chest.

"My god - _Shigeru_!" he cried. He ran forward and bent to his knees beside Shigeru, touching the boy's arm. It was real; a real person and not some mistake. He could tell as much by the roughness of Shigeru's elbow and the softness inside the crease of his arm.

"Shigeru," Satoshi repeated, his hand curling around Shigeru's arm. "Shigeru, wake up!"

The man's voice came from behind Satoshi. He'd moved closer as well.

"So you know the Ookido kid, huh?" asked the man, and he sounded almost friendly; but a note was strained, and his voice raised the hair on the back of Satoshi's neck.

Satoshi helplessly ran his hands over Shigeru's forehead, as if checking the temperature. His voice shook as he answered Foster. "Don't you see he's unconscious? You've got to help me get him out of here! This is bad--"

"What? Help you get him out... What, are you his_ friend_ or something?"

Satoshi gaped, and turned to the scowling man.

"We're old friends," he said. Then he switched his tone into one more accusing: "What about you? Are you blind?"

"No, I can see him lying there."

Satoshi felt a shiver go down his neck as he looked at Foster. He didn't seem concerned about Shigeru. He seemed almost smug. But why would someone be that way? Satoshi racked his brain, and came up with the only conclusion that could possibly answer the situation.

"You did this to him," Satoshi said unevenly.

"Is that what you think? Even though I've been your friend in the past, helping you...?"

Foster raised his voice, as if he were goading Satoshi. "Shigeru and I are old friends, too, you know," he said. "But I didn't do anything to him. That is, I did... nothing."

Satoshi stared at the man, confusion with his fear, but amplifying his anger more than anything.

"You bastard," he growled. "You did do something. Why else would you say it like that?"

Foster chuckled and stepped over to where Shigeru was laying. He looked down at the boy with disdain, and Satoshi thought that he might actually kick Shigeru, and braced himself. "Don't get so worked up," said Foster. "It's nothing permanent, Satoshi-kun_._ Your friend will be himself again by morning."

"Don't tell me that! How do you know?" Satoshi found himself back on his feet before he'd realized that he'd unbent his legs. "Shigeru's lying underneath a ladder that shouldn't even be in the past in the first place! You're not supposed to be here either!"

"Yeah, so what? You going to do anything about it?"

Satoshi had no idea what he was going to do, but he had to do something. Instinctively he reached for a pokeball -- but he'd forgotten that they were gone now, and his hand only met air around his belt. Foster kept on laughing.

"Why are you even here?" Satoshi demanded, frustrated. "What do you even _want_?"

Foster smiled, and looked past Satoshi, to the place where Shigeru laid in the rubble. "Funny you should use that word," he said.

The anger stormed Satoshi from all sides; he clenched his jaw and with no other option, he launched himself at Foster with a strangled yell -- "Get away from him!" he shouted --

-- and met nothing but the hard rock floor.

For the second time that night, Satoshi's lungs crushed and flattened, knocking the breath sharply out of him. He turned over with a groan, and saw Foster standing exactly in the place where Satoshi had just fallen through the air. His skin, however, had begun to gleam. The spotlights, the ladder, the boxes -- they all began to glow, at first dimly, but then brighter an brighter, and Satoshi was forced to shade his eyes with the back of his hand. He looked up at Foster, a final time - wanting to get out a question, but unable to find any words. Satoshi watched as a gel-like blue substance dropped over the man's transient body like a curtain, and his movements slowed and stopped.

Then, like a zap of electricity, he flickered and vanished into nothing.

The spotlights, the ladder, the boxes disappeared along with him. Even the pinning rocks and the wet pool of blood was missing from the floor by Shigeru's thigh -- but Shigeru himself had yet to wake up. He was breathing as if through shredded paper, and when Satoshi pressed his hand against Shigeru's artery he felt a pounding heartbeat. He didn't know if that was good or bad, and without the spotlights - without the blue light, whatever it had been - all he could see was a cloying darkness. Satoshi blinked to adjust his eyes, hoping that the torchlight from the hall would restrain the black tide that surrounded them. Nothing changed, so he wrapped his arms around Shigeru and pulled him to an upright slump.

"Hold on," Satoshi murmured, with a panicked edge sliding over his voice. "I'll get us out of here. Just... hold on."


	16. Chapter 16

Reviewers, you lot are amazing. I'm writing this for you guys; you are my supreme motivators, and I re-read your messages nearly every time before I write. Greenflower, you are a great beta and a greater friend. In Ruins wouldn't be here without you and you know it. Here we go again - _with a chapter that's double the usual length!_

**In Ruins**

Chapter Sixteen

* * *

When Shigeru tried to remember his and Satoshi's trip to the Temple, most of it was lost to a hazy memory of tightly twined pain and fear, overlapped with older memories of a past equally hard to relate.

Satoshi had led ahead, brash and thoughtless as always. If he hadn't, Shigeru didn't think he would have been able to move. A day's worth of anticipation had brought him to the entrance of the ancient building tense, wired, and nervous. But he hadn't expected paranoia to settle on him, a sticky film like dried sweat, just from seeing the temple doors appear from where they'd slept inside of stones. It didn't matter that he knew the Temple like the lines of his palm; that as he'd walked the corridors, it all looked the same as the place he'd left behind in the future. But that was _wrong._ Things weren't just supposed to feel different in this Alph, they were supposed to actually be different. And so was he. He was supposed to be a different Shigeru here. The Shigeru he would've been if there had never been an accident; happy, easy-going, eager to find a hundred Temple rooms filled with treasures for him and Satoshi both.

He had eventually realized with a bitter-laced resignation that, while perhaps the town of Alph had been made enjoyable to him, it was his irrevocable fate to be denied any satisfaction inside the walls of this Temple. Ever. In sum, the Temple was his hell, but an endurable hell - at least until he'd entered the Main Room.

His foot had barely crossed over the door-frame before everything escalated. He didn't think it, he _knew _that he was being watched, so much so that he'd been compelled to look back and behind him. Of course, there was nothing there that he could see. Shigeru blinked once and his mind slipped back to a time when the halls had been just as empty, and he was fourteen years old and on the floor, his leg being crushed by a fall and boxes, and he'd been looking through that same door, hoping someone would come, someone, _anybody_ come, _please, please, please, I don't want to die-_

As soon as the memory came, it left him. He was left with little more to show for it than a sense of whiplash; nauseated and strangely cold. Satoshi, of course, had been completely oblivious. He was stubborn and so persistent that Shigeru had been reduced to begging for them to leave. For once, _he _was the one who had to pitch a fit, just like a whiny brat. Like he was a child.

There was so much wrong in that.

Playing in the sand and clay at Tano's, walking around without pokemon on his belt, watching from high places as the fingertips of sunsets dabbled color on the tops of waves, it was easy to pretend that he and Satoshi had never been separated from each other; that nothing bad had ever happened to them. But as Shigeru had looked at Satoshi, he was forced to realize that while he'd been acting like a child, he'd also been pretending that Satoshi still _was _a child.

He couldn't understand how he'd ever managed to be that stupid.

Because when Shigeru had finally lashed out at Satoshi, Satoshi had shouted back, with barbed accusations and a burning glare in his eyes. It shocked Shigeru. He knew at that moment that Satoshi had changed irrevocably, just like him. Satoshi wasn't a child anymore. His arms were stronger, he was taller, and and he didn't act like he had when he was barely pubescent. He didn't put up with cruelty anymore, and Shigeru couldn't help being afraid that Satoshi would never forgive him. And that fear was even stronger than his fear of the Room.

But then he'd heard the footfalls.

The memories, the anxieties that Shigeru had been pushing from his mind were crawling back from their corners, dragging themselves across the floors of his mind with gnarly grey hands, and they were humming the words without words:

_It happened in a room like this, in a room like this._

Shigeru's heart had hammered in his chest. He had clenched his fists, fighting to reason with himself: He was in Alph. In the _past_. Even if someone were looking, they wouldn't find him here. They couldn't. But he had felt it. And there had been footsteps... And it was too late to hide it in his mind any longer. He had been trying so hard not to let it happen; he had been so damn reasonable about it, putting up dams and dams, but Satoshi was always right there, wearing him down, and the ruins, too. It had all finally ruined him. The feelings stormed over his thoughts and poured out into the empty space where he'd left the past confined.

His hands had started shaking. The memories came back in the rush, all at once and he couldn't tell what was the past or the present, it was just the fear, the fear that no one would find him, _no one would find him_, he was going to bleed to death and_ die_. He had to get out of here. He had to get to the door. But there was no way and no hope and _no one would find him._

Satoshi's voice reached his ears as if it was muffled, though he only stood several feet away.

_"Shigeru, what are you..."_

He never answered, because he ran. He ran from Satoshi, crossing the threshold of the room; he took a right and the dark and winding catacomb flew past him as he ran; he was only unconsciously aware that it must, at some point, lead back to the outside and to his freedom. Whether he was right or not about it was irrelevant, because he never got that far.

The door - the door, with the glowing blue light, a skewed sort of halo - shone to him like a beacon. The room pulled him in before he even knew that there was a pull, and then everything happened in terrifying fast succession. Foster appeared. After years, he was there, all of him; right down to the mole on his neck, bobbing on his Adam's apple, half-tucked in to the rib of his orange turtleneck. Shigeru had barely had time to cry out that single word of a name before the pain struck him. Shigeru's leg gave, for the first time in a month, and he crumpled like a maple leaf tossed into a flame: He curled up inside of himself and disappeared.

He knew nothing but darkness and pain when he knew; this was only punctuated by a hollow pain and the vague memory of harsh breathing, of beating wings, of something cool on his forehead. Then the blank darkness lifted up, like breathy fog over hillsides in the morning. It rose, rose, rose, until so did he.

* * *

When Shigeru first began to wake, he let out a soft, pained moan. It was quiet as a sigh, but to Satoshi it may as well have been gunpowder exploding from the barrel of a gun. He had been feigning sleep on the mat adjacent to Shigeru for countless hours, listening so intently to the mingled sounds of his and Shigeru's breathing for the entire length of the night, that even the most subtle of distractions, like the distant whine of Kricketune or the slightest rustle of fabric, startled him. Satoshi shot up from his pallet, abrupt and shaky as he held himself up by his arms - they were still exhausted from dragging Shigeru out of the Temple - and looked over and down toward where he and Haruka had laid Shigeru down the night before.

Satoshi could barely see the edge of his form in the darkness, even as close as they were. There was light in the room, but only the thinnest thread from the spool of moonlight. It had seeped in from the sliver of space between the obfuscating curtain and the rocks of the window, and it illuminated Shigeru's face, framing him in the vertical line of a portrait . The thin edges of the balls of his eyes, his lashes, his lids, were all illuminated. A sliver of his cheek was lit up, too, and the line dipped from the curve of his cheekbone down to his jaw, settling in for a plunge at the edge of his lips. The skin around Shigeru's eyelids twitched in tiny spasms, as if flickering from fear. Satoshi whispered out Shigeru's name tentatively.

"Shigeru. Are you awake?" he asked.

When there was no reply, Satoshi wondered if Shigeru had made the noise in his sleep. Maybe he was dreaming. Satoshi had no idea if that were a good sign or not, and his hope warred with his concern. He had no idea about sick people; he didn't understand what had happened to Shigeru in the first place, or how he'd been injured without a single bruise on his body. It was too complicated for him to think through, so he set everything aside in the back of his mind and reached out for what he knew, and shook Shigeru from the shoulder.

"Hey, wake up," he intoned. He could feel the raised goosebumps across Shigeru's skin. His warmth seeped into Satoshi's extended palm.

Shigeru began to move, and he made that same groan again. But this time he sucked in a deep breath of air and opened his eyes.

"Where...?" he grit out. It was hardly a word but Satoshi rejoiced to hear it.

"Haruka's," Satoshi answered readily. "We're out of the Temple. It's just us here. You're safe now."

Shigeru searched Satoshi's eyes for a moment. Whatever he found there must have been enough: his shallow breathing deepened and Satoshi could feel the tension draining from the muscles underneath his hand.

"My leg..." started Shigeru.

"It's fine. You didn't need stitches, or had broken bones or anything. You've just been sleeping a long time."

"...Okay," Shigeru exhaled. It was a half-reply at best, too sleep-ridden to bear much meaning. Satoshi watched helplessly as Shigeru's lashes flickered, and his eyelids closed. The even breaths resumed, far apart and steady. He was sleeping. Satoshi knew he had to be tired, btu he wanted to shout him back awake. He had so many questions. What had happened earlier? How was it normal to be that tired after sleeping most of the night, when there was nothing wrong that Satoshi could see? Why couldn't Haruka have stayed here and helped him?

Satoshi let go of Shigeru's shoulder, and laid back down in his bed.

At least he now knew that Shigeru was recovering. He _would_ wake up again, and perhaps, come later in the morning, they could discuss what had happened, who had invaded Alph (people from their past?). And if there were more invaders coming, and whether or not Alph was safe. And for that matter, if _they _were safe. Satoshi didn't really know if that was true or not, no matter what he had said to Shigeru just moments before.

Somehow, he found sleep.

The next time Satoshi woke up, he felt warmth. It was like a heater had been affixed at odd angles to his left thigh, and the space above his hipbone, his right cheek, one of his hands - and quickly discovered that the sticky, achey feeling spread from wherever he and Shigeru's bodies were touching. He hadn't meant to fall asleep beside Shigeru, much less had he meant to fall asleep against him. He was embarrassed to see that he had curled his hand around Shigeru's arm somewhere in his dreams. Though it felt like letting go of those night memories, he reluctantly let the other boy go with a heavy, sleepy blush.

_Shigeru woke up last night. He's going to be all right. _That was all Satoshi could think of, and it was for the moment the only thing that mattered.

The sliver of light from beyond the curtains had grown brighter, and stronger, spreading out a wide fan of light over a little less than a quarter of the floor. Satoshi crawled to the hearth, groping through that patch of darkness for the tea that Haruka had left them. The fire had simmered out long ago, long before Shigeru had even woken for the first time, but beneath the ash he could still feel the glow of coal. Warmer than the fireplace were the tendrils of heat spreading from the open space near the doorway and the window. It was late in the morning, then; or at least too late to want to make things hotter. Satoshi fumbled at the pot handle, and at last poured lukewarm tea into a cup and onto his hand. He took the tea to Shigeru and cleared his throat awkwardly.

"I know that you just woke up - but you've been asleep for a long time. You really need to wake up, you know..."

"I'm awake," Shigeru croaked, to Satoshi's surprise.

"Oh," he said, uncomfortably staring at Shigeru. His tunic had ridden up, exposing a flash of skin above his waistband, and for some reason all Satoshi could think of was how sticky and hot his skin had felt when he woke up with Shigeru against him. "I, uh, you should have some tea. It's not really hot, but Haruka said it might help a little..."

Satoshi leaned down and pressed the cup to Shigeru's lips. With apparently great effort, Shigeru turned his face from the tea. When he spoke at last, his voice was scratchy but resolute: "I don't want it. I don't want to talk," he said hoarsely.

"Will you talk to me later?" asked Satoshi astutely. Shigeru didn't answer, and instead avoided his eye. Satoshi was momentarily proud to have understood Shigeru correctly; to know that no answer to 'later' really meant an answer of 'never'.

The first embers his anger let out a spark. "Shigeru, I saved your life back there," he pointed out curtly. "But I don't even know what happened. You don't even seem injured!"

"I'll tell you what happened when I'm ready. Later. I need... time to think," Shigeru answered. Although his eyes were quite slitted as he said it, ultimately he seemed unable to gather the energy to glare. Satoshi knew that it meant he shouldn't try to ask for more information, but Satoshi was _itching _to know, because as it was he didn't know how to feel. He'd been too busy being determined to be afraid or act like anything but reckless (which was something he'd sworn to Kenji that he wouldn't do), so he started to inform Shigeru of it, but Shigeru stopped him in the middle of his first syllable of protest.

"Satoshi, if you push me, I won't tell you anything. I need to _think,"_ he reiterated.

"Just tell me if you're okay," Satoshi replied in rapid-fire. "Are you sure you're not hurt somewhere I don't know about? Your leg-"

"I'm not hurt anymore." Shigeru's eyelashes fluttered mostly closed. His voice settled into the soft pillows of his bed along with them. "...Just tired. Come back later."

Satoshi had no choice but to give in. He felt the flicker of anger return to the pit of his belly, being replaced with empathy. It was hard to argue with a sick person. It was hard to argue with a sick _Shigeru._

"Okay, I will," he said, subdued. "I'll come back later. I'm going to tell Tano that, you know, we won't be going to work today, unless you want to... Shigeru?"

But Shigeru had already drifted back asleep.

Before he left, Satoshi checked everything according to Haruka's specifications; that Shigeru was properly settled, covered in blankets, and that there was tea nearby. Then he turned on his heel and left the dark swell of their room.

Stepping into the dusty, limestone cobbled-street was worse than it was on most mornings; the sun seemed unusually piercing in its brightness. Satoshi was forced to shield his eyes from its glare as he adjusted, squinting until he saw as much eyelash as he saw landscape, and walked to Tano's house by himself.

It was nearly noon when he arrived. Tano sat near the shade of a large tree outside his cottage, drinking from an over-sized goblet of water. He was so enthusiastic in drinking that it spilt around the edges of his mouth, at the thick creases of his smile lines, and dripped dark puddle-trails onto his shirt.

"Tano-san," greeted Satoshi, entering the cover of the tree.

The old man looked up with surprise in his brows. "What are you doing here?" he asked with a fond smile. "Haruka said you wouldn't be able to work today."

Satoshi couldn't help but be grateful to Haruka for her knack at remembering to do all the responsible things, all the time.

"Well, she was right. I can't work," he said apologetically. "I don't think I'm up to it today. I'm, uh..."

He hesitated, wondering if Shigeru would have wanted him to lie to Tano. He didn't have any reason to distrust Tano-san, but he didn't know if he was supposed to talk about the Temple with anyone but the priestesses. But before he could deliberate his way to an explanation, Tano held up a weathered hand.

"Say no more," he said firmly. "Your explanation is not important. I don't mind your absence today. Sometimes, it is necessary to sacrifice a day of poorly made pots."

Satoshi looked at him curiously. "... Do what?"

"Your work suffers when your mind suffers," Tano reiterated.

"Ah," said Satoshi, though he only half-understood. He had a feeling that Shigeru would've understood, but the fact that Shigeru wasn't there brought a little pang to his chest.

Tano gestured to the ground beside him. "Do you have time to sit? It must be hot, standing in the sun."

"Yeah," said Satoshi, gratefully stepping under the cover of the tree.

The old man picked up a carving tool - it was really just a stick with some rope affixed to the end - and began rubbing circular patterns onto the rim of his pot. "Where is Shigeru?" he asked conversationally.

"He's still at Haruka's, sleeping, I think. Noon is kind of late, but..."

Tano nodded. "He is probably ill."

"He said he wasn't," Satoshi replied.

Tano tapped his skull and smiled wryly. "The mind, my boy. It is possible to be ill in the mind."

"He's not crazy!" Satoshi defended, and Tano actually laughed.

"Even the sane can have days when their minds grow tired, Satoshi. Shigeru may just need to sleep, today. And if not sleep, perhaps the space to think to himself. I imagine that when you return to him, he will be ready to speak with you."

Satoshi dropped his shoulders back and sighed. Tano seemed so _right_ about _everything. _It had to be because he was old, old people always knew a lot (like Shigeru's grandfather, for one).

"How do you know all this stuff?" Satoshi lamented. "Sometimes I think I understand Shigeru but I'm really no good at reading him."

"When you are my age, you will understand better," said Tano, completely proving Satoshi's theory.

He conceded grudgingly, "Yeah, I'll figure him out by the time I'm ancient. Shigeru really _would_ take a lifetime to make sense. He doesn't make it easy at all."

"Ah, that he does not. But I would dare say it is worth it."

Satoshi felt himself nodding. Tano was right, and though Satoshi knew it, the knowledge alone couldn't explain why his gut tightened when he thought of his friendship with Shigeru as being worth anything. Shigeru's value was simply so much more than he knew how to express.

* * *

After the visit, Satoshi meandered the streets in the remaining interim, visiting the crowded plaza filled with market vendors and their assorted goods. He passed most of them, only half-hearing their greetings. It was the food that caught his attention; tantalizing him with their aromas. Juices, fruits, and simmering meat kabobs sent scents as strong as tastes wafting out into the air. He had missed two meals already, and the hunger swelled in the empty pit of his stomach. No matter what had happened the night before, he was faintly glad to still be hungry - it meant he was that much himself, at least. He laid out in the central plaza where the green grass grew in long, flat terraces, and a few small and crooked trees provided him with knots of shade. He gorged on his food, pointedly ignoring everything but what he saw around him immediately. The heat, the food, and the lack of stimulating company conspired against him, so eventually he dosed. By the time he awoke, the sun wasn't too bright for his eyes, and the radiant waves of afternoon heat were settling back onto the receding ocean tides.

Satoshi finally returned to Haruka's at the edge of evening, and by chance he approached the building just as she was finishing a visit. Masato had come with her, too; he shrugged past the curtain before it fell behind her, looking distinctly green beyond a frame of already dark-green hair. Satoshi called out to greet them, and Haruka raised a thrice-braceleted hand to wave back.

"Satoshi. I wondered that you weren't inside," she said to him vaguely. Satoshi jogged over. On closer inspection, her smile seemed drawn.

"I'm just back from Tano's and uh, stuff," said Satoshi by way of explanation. "Have you just...?"

"We just came to check on both you and Shigeru, yes."

"I'm leaving," interjected Masato before Satoshi could offer another query. With a quick, glinting glare he stalked past Satoshi and left. Haruka shook her head, obviously bemused by his behavior. Then she made eye contact with Satoshi and put a finger to her lips.

"Shigeru is sleeping," she stage-whispered.

_Still? _thought Satoshi. "I thought you would have woken him up with your visit."

"No, no. He needs the sleep more than he needs to be awake," said Haruka reasonably.

"When he wakes up he'll probably complain that you were letting him be lazy," pointed out Satoshi.

Haruka laughed weakly at his joke, but Satoshi was too consumed by worry to join her. He looked at the ground, frowning.

"Satoshi," she suggested after a moment, breaking him out of a blank and empty stare, "If we're going to keep talking, can we... can we sit down somewhere?"

"Sure," Satoshi answered immediately. Haruka smiled gratefully at him.

They wandered the sharp curves of street for a few minutes before finding a low outcrop of wall. Satoshi touched the dusty surface of the tightly hewn stonework and remembered Haruka taking him to that same place on the night when he had first arrived in Alph. It was an isolated nook for speaking; quiet, shadowed, and the rock was even cool through the fabric of his pants as he sat down on it. He traced a pattern in the dust beside his thigh.

"So..." Satoshi let his voice trail into the air, but looked up to Haruka as the word drifted away from him. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Last night," she said so bluntly that for a moment, Satoshi saw the soul of a young pokemon trainer shining out from the eyes of a woman in a priestess's gown. He shook off the strange feeling he'd gotten when he'd thought of Haruka, back at Tano's. No matter where she was, Haruka was Haruka, after all.

Satoshi lifted his hand to rub at the back of his neck. "I'm still not really sure I understand what happened last night. I don't think I can explain what happened, really, but..."

Satoshi thought back on carrying Shigeru from the room, and he had been so heavy that his arms had burnt like fire. It had felt like there were rocks in his lungs that kept him from catching his breath, but eventually he had made it to the first split in the corridors with Shigeru on his back, arms slung over his shoulders. By then, he was close enough to be heard when he shouted, and Haruka and Hikari had appeared immediately. Hikari and Haruka had helped him carry Shigeru the rest of the way out of the Temple, but they hadn't been composed. When Haruka first saw them, she'd dropped the jar of incense she'd been holding, and her hands had flown to her face. Hikari had grabbed at her to keep from wavering so badly that she would fall.

He hadn't felt much of anything at the time, except a determination to leave, like Shigeru had wanted, and the desire to be alone, which was what _he _had wanted. Haruka's home felt the most safe, so at her blessing he'd called out for Staraptor to carry them back to the city below.

There'd been nothing apparently wrong with Shigeru. Haruka had laid him on the cot and waved her smelling salts, but he didn't wake. Satoshi had checked his clothes - there wasn't blood anywhere. And as far as he could see, there weren't even new bruises, or swelling. The only thing wrong, like Tano had said, was something in his _mind_.

But there had to be more to it, somehow. Satoshi was absolutely certain of something: he knew that he'd seen Foster. He'd been just as Satoshi had remembered him; in a lab coat, an orange turtle neck, with memories of modern times and memories of Satoshi. But the impossibility of it was impossible to understand. Alph was supposed to be in the past, away from everyone and everything from the present. Alph was supposed to be _safe._

"It_ is _safe," declared Haruka vehemently, as Satoshi concluded his story. "The Protectors-"

"The Protectors aren't doing their job," Satoshi returned. He frowned darkly. "If they were trying to protect us, then they wouldn't have let that person from our time come here and attack Shigeru.

"And... You told us when we came here that you thought that we were here to be part of some, some myth, and that we're supposed to help you leave the island or something. But we can't do that, either. And we don't know how to fulfill your legend. And now, on top of everything, Shigeru's hurt because, apparently, the legend exists to protect you guys but it says nothing about protecting me or Shigeru."

Haruka sat, pale, with her bottom lip quivering.

"So what am I supposed to do, Haruka? He's hurt, and I don't know how to help him!"

It hit Satoshi that he was still scared, and he had no idea what to think about Foster or any of it. That was what scared him the most - He didn't know what to do next.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Satoshi."

Satoshi furrowed his brow and looked at Haruka with some hesitance. "You don't have to say you're sorry; I know this isn't your fault. I _saw_ the person who attacked Shigeru."

"But..." Haruka shut her eyes, like the words caused her pain. "I might have caused that man to appear."

The words came out thickly when Satoshi answered her.

"You... You did _what_?"

Haruka didn't have a chance to answer. She was interrupted by a voice, answering from several feet behind: "She prayed to the Protectors, _that's _what."

Haruka and Satoshi both turned to face the boy who matched the voice. Masato stood a few feet away from them with a woven basket filled with fruits, flatbread, and vegetables in his arms.

"I don't understand," Satoshi said slowly.

Masato put down his basket. His face was surprisingly rueful as he elaborated on his earlier statement. "Look. The legend wasn't solving itself like we'd assumed it would. It's been a month. We've waited for so long, and it was becoming unbearable, so I... Before Haruka went to the mountain last night, I suggested to her that we ask the Protectors for a sign. So when she performed her rites, she did. She asked. So if whatever happened to Shigeru last night was a 'sign', then it's her fault, but mine too."

Satoshi stared at the siblings in shock. He knew his mouth was gaping, but he had to see if there was truth in what Masato had said. Haruka's head was down, and the fringe of her bangs cast shadows over all but her lower lashes. Her breathing was thick, and he wondered if she was crying, but didn't really care. Masato, however, stepped in reaching out a hand to Haruka's shoulder in a gesture of kindness. Satoshi looked on, fairly surprised; the Masato of Alph had been so annoying that Satoshi had forgotten that he was still Haruka's brother.

"I know you're upset, but can't you tell that she is, too?" Masato sneered at him.

"Upset! Shigeru was injured last night. This is way more than just being 'upset,' you know?"

"I'm really sorry," Haruka added, and looked it.

Satoshi couldn't accept it. He pouted. "You didn't mean to hurt him, but you're still at least partially responsible!"

"I only asked the Protectors to help you." Haruka's bell-voice sounded brittle. "I asked for _help. _Just because things happened last night, it doesn't have to mean that the Protectors did it. Are you sure that this man you saw... That this man wasn't someone from Alph?"

"I'm positive of it," said Satoshi darkly. "The outsider who I saw came from the same place where Shigeru and I come from. But he wasn't real like Shigeru and I are. At least, I don't think he was. He had no body."

"He had no body?" Masato stared at Satoshi, clearly baffled.

"I don't think so. I couldn't touch him," Satoshi clarified.

Haruka asked hesitantly, "Do you think he was a ghost?"

"No," Satoshi answered, shaking his head. He'd seen a ghost when he was ten years old, and this was totally different. "He couldn't be _dead _in this time if he hasn't even been born yet, right? Besides, Fost... The person I saw... he was too human. He didn't float around. He walked on two feet. He held a conversation with me. So, I thought that he had to be real. Except that when I tried to tackle him, I fell straight through him. He wasn't solid." Satoshi's breath caught at the word and understanding struck him. "He wasn't solid because he was an illusion."

Satoshi wasn't sure why he hadn't connected it in his head immediately, but everything clicked now. He understood why the way that Foster had turned blue and disappeared wasn't unfamiliar. He'd seen the exact same thing happen before - four years before, to be exact, when the Unown had visited Molly of Greenfield.

He remembered the first time he saw Molly. She had been easily eighteen, even though Satoshi _knew _that she was only 5 years old at most. She'd challenged Takeshi to a pokemon battle, won, and then went up against Kasumi. But before starting the battle, she changed. _Physically. _In half a moment, she was covered in blue, and her body melted down and reformed itself into a girl just about aged twelve.

Kasumi had whispered in his ear, "_The real Molly must still be somewhere else._"

Which meant that the blue Molly had been an illusion. And the blue Foster must have been an illusion as well. An illusion that had been created by the Unown.

"The man I saw last night wasn't real," Satoshi concluded, and he thought to himself that Shigeru would've been proud. " The Protectors must have brought him here just to attack Shigeru, I bet."

"I don't understand," cried Haruka. "I already told you, the Protectors would never do that-"

Satoshi cut in, "If you think they're so great, then why is Shigeru hurt!"

"I know what you are aiming at, Satoshi, but the nature of the Legend isn't pain," Masato interrupted. His voice was matter-of-fact, and grating as it was, at least it was filled with placidity instead of anger. "The Protectors are good. They have been kind to our people, keeping us from sickness, hunger, and war for hundreds of years."

Satoshi folded his arms defiantly.

"They've been good to you, maybe. But I know what I saw. And Shigeru knew it too. He knew - He knew that something was wrong before I did. He tried to get me to leave the Temple, but I just didn't get it. Maybe he wouldn't have been attacked, maybe he'd be awake right now and everything would be fine."

Masato looked at Satoshi like he was an idiot.

"What do you mean, 'maybe he'd be awake'? Shigeru and I were just talking a minute ago."

Satoshi was taken aback.

"What?" he asked. "Just now?"

Haruka turned to Masato with a flair.

"I can't believe you! Shigeru was supposed to be taking a nap," she reprimanded her brother. "He needs to sleep off whatever happened to him in the Temple."

Masato returned, "Yeah? Well so do you. I saw how exhausted you were last night after the ritual, and I doubt you've eaten much all day. Besides, Shigeru's the one who started talking to me, and not the other way around."

"Shigeru's awake," Satoshi burst out between them. "That means he's okay, right?"

"See for yourself," said Masato, and scowled. Satoshi hastily stood and dusted the sand from the seat of his tunic.

"Satoshi, wait, please. You should take this food for your dinners," Haruka picked up the food basket from the ground and offered it to Satoshi like a supplication. "I know you're still upset, and I don't expect that I can make it better with this, but you need to eat."

Satoshi looked at her fleetingly, before he focused on something down the street. "I'm not really mad at you. I'm just mad at everything," he corrected her. "Anyway, I don't wanna talk about this anymore. I've gotta go and see Shigeru."

He did, however, take the basket.

* * *

When Satoshi bent back the door flap, he found Shigeru sitting against the far wall with his right leg stretched out carefully on a pile of rugs as if perhaps it pained him. It took him a moment to realize what made Shigeru seem so different: he was wearing his white lab coat. Satoshi stifled a laugh of surprise; he'd forgotten that they still _had _their old clothes, that they hadn't just arrived naked or something, like babies when they were born.

It was strange enough to mask Satoshi's brimming frustration with nervousness besides, but at least Shigeru wasn't buried under a pile of stone, and at least he wasn't still unconscious in a pile of blankets on the floor. This eased the pain a lot.

"Hey. You're wearing your lab coat," he commented.

"It's not like there's any deep, psychological reason for it," Shigeru said quickly. "I just wanted to feel something familiar."

That sounded kind of like a deep, psychological reason to Satoshi, but he decided not to say anything. He missed wearing his pokemon league hat, after all, and walking around Alph without the heavy weight of his trainer's belt had felt awkward for at least the first week. Sometimes, it still did.

He crossed the room and sat down at Shigeru's side. He felt conspicuously aware of his entire body, right to his fingertips. It was strange. Even though he could see that Shigeru was obviously acting normal, or normal-ish - which really just meant he didn't look like he was about to die for no reason - Satoshi could feel his own heart thrumming inside of his chest, beating almost painfully fast as he looked at his friend.

"Do you need more tea?" Satoshi asked, though he really wanted to ask, '_Are you all right?'_

Shigeru saw through him like he were an untinted window.

"No, Satoshi. I don't need more tea," he answered. "I'm upright and conscious on my own, thanks."

"Yeah, I noticed." Satoshi settled his back against the wall and slumped down. "You're not tired?"

"Mostly just hungry," said Shigeru. "Want to shower. Hasn't the time for us to go in changed with the new moon?"

"Yeah, but there's something I wanna do first. I need to tell you what I think I've figured out about what happened yesterday."

Satoshi looked up for a response from Shigeru. But when he only met passivity, Satoshi decided to barrel ahead.

"Haruka said she asked the Protectors to send a sign that would help us solve the legend. So when you got injured in the Temple - and Foster was involved - that was the sign, apparently. But nothing _actually _happened. Even your injury was an illusion created by the Protectors."

Shigeru swirled the dregs of the tea in his cup, and frowned at them.

He asked Satoshi finally, "How do you know about Foster?"

Of all the things to ask about, Satoshi was surprised that Shigeru had fixated on that particular point.

"Well, for one thing, you've had nightmares before about him," Satoshi pointed out. "I've heard that much. Besides, I met Foster in the Temple, remember? When I ran after you. But I only just connected the name and the face last night, because I met him almost five years ago. Back when I was traveling through Johto."

Shigeru nodded slightly. "But you said he was an illusion."

"Yeah," Satoshi agreed. "There's no way he could've been a real person because he wasn't even solid. I watched him turn blue and completely disappear. It was exactly like I saw happen in Greenfield."

Shigeru seemed more eager to pitch in as Satoshi progressed his thoughts. "It would be possible. The Unown create illusions, after all." He grimaced. "It just... It didn't feel _like _an illusion."

"I guess so. But the Unown's illusions are always convincing ones. I mean even Entei said that he didn't _feel _like an illusion. He really thought that he was real, and it was kind of disturbing. I remember... that he smelled like the burnt edges of paper."

Shigeru closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he avoided looking at Satoshi and was staring up at the ceiling. Satoshi wondered if he'd been imagining Entei, a legendary pokemon that smelled like burnt paper (of all the un-legendary things to smell like), but then he realized that Shigeru's hand was at his leg; not holding it, but resting on it.

"Is your leg bothering you again?"

"In a way. Last night, I relived my old injury point by point, like I was back in my past," Shigeru explained, cognizant of Satoshi's stare but with a voice flat of expression. "I found myself speaking the same words I had spoken before. Stepping back in the same way. It all felt out of my control, and then... Then the pain, you know? It hurt in the exact same places. Foster, the rest of the junk in that room, I don't know whether any of that was real or not but I know that my leg still hurts. It is _not _an illusion."

"But I thought your accident put you in the hospital," Satoshi blurted out in his confusion. "If it happened again, why are you okay now?"

"I'm not 'okay'," Shigeru retorted. "I'm in a pain."

"But that's the only thing, right? Because yesterday, even though there wasn't any blood, you were covered in heavy stuff. And you weren't waking up, and I was... I was..." He'd been terrified, but doesn't want to admit it past the knot in his throat. "I thought you were going to die."

"How much did you see?" Shigeru asked him abruptly.

Satoshi considered the question.

"Not a lot," he admitted. "After you ran away, I found you in a room. And I saw - I saw Foster. I saw you, too, on the floor, already... hurt. Anyway, I tried to ask him for help in rescuing you, but when he wouldn't, I figured out that he was... That he'd attacked you."

"Well, you were wrong. He didn't attack me," said Shigeru, looking away.

"You looked like you were dying," Satoshi repeated stubbornly.

"Well, I wasn't," answered Shigeru with equal mulishness. "I'd just forgotten how much my leg had _hurt. _I blacked out from the pain, that's all."

"That's all'? If you blacked out, you were going through way too much pain. And besides, Foster as much as told me that he wanted you to be hurt," Satoshi argued.

Shigeru looked up at Satoshi with an indiscernible expression. "Really?"

Satoshi remembered Foster's weird smirk and he had to set his jaw firm to keep himself from shivering. "Yeah."

"That's strange, Satoshi. He... Foster wasn't just some evil person who liked to inflict pain. I don't know why that's the person you saw, but-"

"Then what kind of a person was he, Shigeru? You keep insisting it's no big deal, and then you go whining in self-pity. If it wasn't an attack, what happened? Why did I find you on the ground like that?"

"Like I said, it was just - it just seemed like a flashback of the past. Of when I messed up my leg."

"Yeah, I _know _that's what it was, but what actually happened? Will you tell me about it?"

"I don't really talk about it," Shigeru evaded.

"Just give me a condensed version, won't you?"

Shigeru began hesitantly.

"Fine. Just so you know, I was only fourteen at the time. Dumb and clutzy," he said, and brought a tea cup to his lips. In his anxiety to drink, his tooth clacked against the brim. Both he and Satoshi pretended not to notice.

"I was in the Temple researching when I knocked over a ladder. The boxes in the room with me, including those leaning on the ladder and such, were supporting several boxes of heavy equipment. When I was climbing to reach some of them, the ladder and the boxes toppled over me. I screamed. Something pointy went into my leg - each surface was sharp like a book of pens - and I could feel myself losing blood. Foster looked at me, panicked, and ran away."

"He ran for help?"

"No... He ran _away_. It was almost an hour before some other researchers found me in a pool of blood. I'd nearly died. And my leg has never been the same since."

Satoshi waited for it to be clear that Shigeru was finished with his story. When it was, he stood up slowly.

"Shigeru," he said. "When you feel like telling me the truth, I'll listen. But don't treat me like an idiot."

"I'm not-" Shigeru protested.

Satoshi clenched his fists. "You _are. _You don't think I saw what happened with my own two eyes, but I did. So why are you lying to me?" he shouted, "Why are you still lying to me?"

"Because you won't like the truth!" Shigeru answered in a raised voice. He got to his feet with effort.

"So you admit that you lied?"

"Most of it was true. All of it but..." Shigeru's face raced through emotions. "Don't get angry; I'll tell you, okay? I'll tell you whatever you want to hear."

"I can't believe you'd lie to me in the first place," Satoshi insisted angrily. He found the wall to his back and sat down, using the stone as a brace to keep him in check when everything in him strained to resist and break free of any composure at all. He wasn't sure where the sudden violence was coming from, but it was _strong. _He'd always felt this way in the past with Shigeru; he'd felt that mix of anger and betrayal. He looked up at Shigeru, who was pacing now; red-faced from the shouting. Evidently, his leg wasn't hurting _that _badly, thought Satoshi with some bitterness.

"How much do you want to know?" asked Shigeru abruptly.

Satoshi folded his arms tightly. "I already told you. I want to hear the truth."

"It's long and complicated," said Shigeru evasively. Satoshi rolled his eyes, in what he thought to be a very Shigeru-like gesture.

"We don't have anything better to do," he said to Shigeru. "You might as well just tell me everything. Starting from where you started to lie."

Shigeru met Satoshi's eyes for a split second, and the intense regret and fear he felt was enough to make Satoshi cringe and take back his words. He didn't, and Shigeru broke the eye contact. He looked off at the wall behind Satoshi, as if he couldn't see.

"Foster," he said slowly. "...didn't attack me."

Satoshi nodded. "Okay."

"He was really a good guy," Shigeru continued. "He was friendly. Very protective of pokemon. He was brash... A lot of things that reminded me of you. Older, obviously. I respected him a lot."

So far, so good.

"Okay," said Satoshi.

"So... So I began to like him."

Satoshi nodded. "Okay," he repeated. "Go on."

Shigeru stopped pacing and looked at Satoshi incredulously.

"Are you listening to me? Did you just hear... Do I have to spell out everything for you? I began to _like _Foster. I had a _crush _on him."

Satoshi's face fell.

A what?

_"A what?"_

"It wasn't a really big crush," Shigeru continued, quickening his story. "I don't think Foster even noticed. At first I never meant for him to know; he was obviously interested in girls anyway, and looked at me like... like the kid I was."

"You're rambling," Satoshi interrupted. The words were out of his mouth before his brain could remind him_, You still haven't figured out what that last bit even meant; you aren't ready for this information yet,_ but it was too late. Shigeru, resigned, was agreeing with him.

"Right. None of that matters," he said, in an unconvincingly flippant tone. "Like I was saying. One day when we were in the Temple, he was upset. I don't know _why _he was in a bad mood; we weren't getting anywhere in our research, I guess that's it... But I'd recently been promoted and I was confident or something, and to make things better I was in the same room with him, so I was happy, and... I guess it was too much. He'd figured out how I felt by then and had decided to pin me down with it."

"Figured what out?" Satoshi barely asked.

"That I _liked_ him. Geez, are you even listening?I'll stop," Shigeru threatened, but Satoshi looked at him with a borrowed exasperation.

"Stop being a jerk and just tell me what happened!" he insisted.

Shigeru looked put out but gave an exasperated sigh and continued. "We had been in the room for a while, working quietly. But out of nowhere, he just asked, 'Are you in love with me?' I wasn't, even then, but I didn't know what to say. I was too shocked to reply immediately. Foster wasn't patient enough to wait even ten seconds. 'You are, aren't you?' he'd said. He barely sounded like himself when he said it. Anyway, by that time, I'd stood up and I'd prepared something to say - but I paused when I saw him coming toward me from across the room. I couldn't see his face at first. There are a lot of shadows in that room. You know that. But then Foster passed by a light and the darkness trailed away from his face... From everywhere but his eyes. They were... He was so angry that he looked crazy. Deranged. Then he was right in front me. He called me a 'little faggot' and punched me in the face."

"He did_ what?_!"

"He punched me in the face." Shigeru rubbed his knuckles over the crest of his forehead ruefully. "And of course I wasn't expecting it. He was bigger than me, stronger... When he hit me, I practically flew backward. And I hit some boxes as I went down. They weren't that heavy; they hurt, just not too badly, but... some of them hit the ladder, and... and it toppled over. All of it. The ladder, the equipment, it fell all around me. On top of me. It was hard to breathe. I could taste blood in my mouth from the punch, but then I couldn't even feel it anymore, because something crashed down on me and I felt the pain in my leg. For the first time, I could feel the stab wound. I could feel the blood gushing out from it.

"Like I told you already, when I cried out for help, Foster didn't do anything; he just stood there. I don't know if he was horrified or proud, but then... he ran away. And he didn't go for help. He didn't even go back to camp to pick up his belongings. He just... disappeared. No one's seen him ever since. "

Shigeru stopped.

"They found you, though," said Satoshi quietly.

"Half-dead," Shigeru agreed.

"That time when I got the letter from Professor Oak... about you being in the hospital. It wasn't a small thing. You nearly died. No one told me that you nearly died."

"Yeah, well..." Shigeru shrugged like it didn't matter, but Satoshi felt every fiber of his being insisting that it mattered a _lot._

"Why did you try to lie to me about this?" he asked, unable to keep the hurt from his voice.

"The last time I told anyone anything about myself that mattered - or that they even _thought _they knew something like that - it didn't end well."

"With Foster," Satoshi guessed.

"Yeah. With Foster."

Satoshi furrowed his brows. "That was... three years ago. You've been keeping this to yourself for that whole time?"

"I didn't want anyone to know," Shigeru answered tightly. "Kenji found out because he pressed it out of me when I had no choice, but I didn't want him to know, either. I didn't want - I don't want my grandfather to be disappointed. I don't even know what my sister will do if she ever finds out, and-"

"You could've told me."

Satoshi looked at Shigeru sincerely, hoping that he would catch his eye, but Shigeru just shook his head, and kept looking at the ground.

"No, I couldn't have," he said in a short puff of speech. He sounded like he was fighting to hold back tears.

"Yeah, you could've. God, Shigeru. I don't care about stuff like that," Satoshi told him earnestly. "I just care about _you_."

Shigeru didn't reply. He just turned to the side, and his shoulders began to shake, and Satoshi had no idea what to do.

Shigeru was crying. And he had been nearly murdered. And he was gay. And he hadn't told _anyone._ Satoshi didn't even know what it meant, just that it was important... and that none of it mattered to him. The sense of betrayal he'd felt in the Temple had been sucked out of his chest just like the sun had stolen the water from his throat. He felt empty of any feeling but a nameless, faceless hurt. All he wanted now was for Shigeru to be all right.

* * *

Shigeru had never actually _told _anyone what had happened in the Room with Foster. Not really. He'd given the emergency response team the same story he'd given Satoshi: after he'd fallen under the debris, Foster had simply disappeared. Of course there'd been speculation at the timing of the events, but Shigeru hadn't made a point to indict Foster in any way. He'd known that Foster probably deserved whatever justice would be given to him- and Shigeru would've been more than happy to see karma turn around and shatter Foster's leg in turn - but when he was being deeply honest with himself, he really just didn't want to see Foster ever again. He didn't want to have to tell the whole story. Because that way, no one would ever know how he'd hurt his leg, or how he'd fallen stupid in love with Foster, and how those feelings had ultimately led to the accident. He'd just closed up the truth inside his chest like he were a coffin for its keeping, and hoped that no one would come to dig up the remnants of the past.

It had stayed far away from him for three years. And then, suddenly, he came to Alph, and everything he thought he knew had turned on his head. Over the past month it had been like Satoshi was leading him out of the graveyard. He had been so struck by hope that he'd actually made himself believe that he might be able to say farewell to the past forever.

But then they'd gone back to the Temple, and it was as if his past had never had a burial at all.

Upon waking the following morning, late, he'd laid in the bed, watching the uneven shadow of the window sill scraping its way across the dirt floor of the room. Its travel was agonizingly slow, lagging across the room hardly a millimeter a minute. He stared and he stared, the disbelief churning in his stomach until everything dropped out of a meaningful frame of reference and he began to drift in his own mind.

He had gotten up from the bed after some effort - he couldn't determine whether the instability of his leg was imagined or actual - and found his old clothes folded in a pile of coarsely woven blankets.

He'd put his dirt-smeared lab coat on, wrapping it around his shoulders like a shroud. He closed his eyes, focusing on the starchy fabric, and remembered a life that was familiar. With the feel of the cloth on him, and the silence thick with heat inside the room, he could imagine he was back in his research lab, the sand getting into everything.

The old Shigeru, the tense, sarcastic, and lonely one that came back with the coat reminded him that he needed to activate his scientific sensibilities. He knew that there were things in Alph that weren't _right, _that Unown were involved in the maintenance of the island, and that likely included the Temple as well. It meant that the Unown had been involved in the impossibility of what had happened the night before. Though Shigeru wasn't sure if they had caused Foster to appear, they had certainly known about it, and not done anything to protect against it.

The Protectors were unpredictable and dangerous, and that's why he needed to bring both himself and Satoshi back to the world where they belonged. But to do that meant they needed to solve the mystery of the legend that had apparently brought them to Alph in the first place.

Yet Shigeru found himself wondering why he should bother at all.

If he were to go back, what was the point? Why would anyone keep living, either there _or _here, when there was only more pain? He couldn't avoid the consequences of his choices, not in his 'real' world, nor in this new one. If his past was to be the ruin of his entire life, destroying everything that followed, then why should he force himself to act like there was a reason to change his fate? To act like there was hope?

He couldn't feign hope anymore, so he didn't even try.

He just shut down.

But Satoshi wasn't like that. When Satoshi had come into the room and expertly stripped away Shigeru's hasty defenses as if they were crusty layers of old bark on a tree.

Satoshi had tried to do what Shigeru usually did. He was trying to be logical; trying to fight his way out in the only way that he could. He had thought about the problem and come up with the same answers as Shigeru had in the silence of the room, and Shigeru couldn't help but be impressed out of his apathy.

He could see that Satoshi had done it because he cared. And Satoshi's caring was as frightening as anything Alph could throw at him, because it broke through his apathy and into the truth that he'd kept dead in his chest. It spurted up in him, alive, like sap in the trunk shooting up from the roots of his heart, and led him into saying things he swore he'd never say - and not just about the Room.

Shigeru let go of everything.

Satoshi, miraculously, had said it didn't matter. He hadn't cared about what had happened as much as he cared about the fact that Shigeru had been hurt. And then he'd ultimately accepted what had happened. Accepted _him._

Maybe it meant that he didn't have to hate his life. Maybe he didn't have to give up just yet.

Maybe there was still hope.

Satoshi, he realized, had been silent for a while. He was looking at Shigeru as if he were waiting for an answer. He was remarkably still, his jaw set with the biding of seriousness and a fixed dent between his eyebrows showing the shadow where his brow was furrowed down.

Shigeru couldn't seem to remove his tongue from the top of his throat. He turned away, wiped at his face; tried to control his breathing. Then at last he looked back at Satoshi, and met him eye for eye.

"Thank you," he managed finally, and Satoshi's expression immediately changed.

His frown was replaced with an awkward smile... and subsequently, so was Shigeru's.


	17. Chapter 17

Hello, old friends (and new). The next chapter is finally here, and more are on their way soon. Hope everyone's having a great summer!

**In Ruins**

Chapter Seventeen

* * *

The bath-house, as big it was, could still hardly fit the entire town within its walls and tubs of water. Shigeru had often observed it was something of a mystery that the building wasn't perpetually, and intolerably, crowded. He had constructed some idle theories while he'd soaked in the bath waters. For one, he reasoned, the men and women (with children) were separated between the morning and the evening, so that meant only half or less of the city would enter any given morning. Second, there was no reason for the entire male populous to bathe all at once, so that reduced crowding further. And third, it was fair to assume that some people forewent bathing for days at a time. Alph was a world at the cusp of civilization, after all.

However, Shigeru had never really stopped to consider why the bath-house was always _empty _when he and Satoshi entered it in the thick of morning.

Now that the men's baths had switched to the evening, Shigeru discovered that the bath-house was in fact quite over-crowded by nature. The only reason that Shigeru and Satoshi had yet to experience this uncomfortable situation was because the townspeople had been, put simply, avoiding them.

From the staging room, Satoshi and Shigeru stood precariously wedged in the island of space spared by piles of chucked off, mismatched sandals. The cubbies on the wall were similarly not spared; stuffed with people's sleeves tumbling out of their compartments like sticks from nests. And as soon as he and Satoshi had passed underneath the hanging linen door, the sudden onset of sound from the bath house's inner room had caused both of them to share an uneasy look.

Satoshi was the first to find his voice. He suggested with a slow and awkward lightness,"We could come back tomorrow."

Shigeru didn't _mind _the idea, per se. He didn't feel physically up to a bath, and certainly not up to one in such a noisy, crowded room. He had become so emptied of energy and emotion after the course of - well, everything, that he felt as if the pipe water would catch the dirt and grime on his skin and carry him away with it. However,

"You smell disgusting," Shigeru replied, shaking his head. "I can't sleep in the same room with you."

"It's only been two days," Satoshi protested.

"Two _sweaty_ days. And on top of that, you had to carry me through the Temple alone last night, didn't you?"

Satoshi had, so he inclined his head and started to disrobe, but not without adding, "Only if you're sure..."

"I don't care," Shigeru had nearly said before catching himself.

Shigeru let the smallest, laziest smirk mince his lips as he found a corner box to stash his wad of stinky clothes. It was a shame he didn't have another set, but judging from the grunge of the clothing in the surrounding cubbies, even his trousers were relatively clean. He threw his towel over his shoulder, and without a flicker of hesitation pushed aside the sliding door and stepped into dull roar of voices in the steam-thick bath.

The volume was deafening, and then, ephemeral. Shigeru hadn't even had a chance to breathe in before the room collectively took in all the air with a single breath, cutting off all conversations mid-sentence. Half the town of Alph was stashed inside the bathroom, and all one hundred of their pair eyes caught onto him and to his naked body.

In utter silence.

Shigeru, frozen on the spot, felt his old defenses clamping down on him like heavy machinery. The kindness he had come to expect from Haruka and Tano, though certainly not from Masato, was completely absent. The eyes of the room were openly assessing him. It made him wish he could be safe in his clothes.

But then Satoshi waltzed in, oblivious and if not outright happy, at least with some indication of peace.

Then he looked up, and realized that no one was watching them anymore.

Satoshi's complete disregard for the situation had caused the antagonists' discomfort to rebound onto themselves. They turned away, part by part, returning to their conversations. And though the volume didn't return to its previous level, the curtain was lifted. Shigeru no longer felt so excluded; merely, stunned.

Satoshi had meanwhile taken over one of the many rapidly abandoned stools, and had arranged himself on the seat beside a cleansing pool without a care in the world. In spite of his vibrance, there was something about the way that he reached toward the pipe, and cupped water in his hands that made him seem remarkably peaceful. A content and happy smile lifted the edges of his honey-brown eyes. They were, Shigeru realized with a plunging feeling in the pit of his stomach, really incredible eyes. They were the same eyes that had held him the night before as tightly as a _Bind_, or _Wrap, _telling him that everything would be all right; they were the eyes that had clung to him just hours ago after he had said, "I don't care."

He could still feel the way Satoshi's eyes had made him feel warm; like being held in an embrace.

A shiver swept Shigeru, and he jerked his head away before Satoshi caught him in his stare. Only once he was facing the pools did he remember that he was in the presence of company, and he felt his stomach turn from low to high, the bile threatening to surface from the sharp anxiety of having been caught looking.

But if any of the villagers had seen, they weren't showing it. Half of them had already found excuses to leave; the other half were facing away from him and Satoshi, toward the far and non-descript wall with high and open-shuttered windows, murmuring in low voices to each other.

He found a pipe and leaned in, moulding his face into the press of the quasi-cataract. The gentle water splashed onto the crest of his brow, where he was smudged with mud from his collapse in the Temple. His hands came up to rub at the skin of his cheeks, his eyes; the pipe-water caught onto grits of dirt, lifting them from where they'd stuck onto the planes of his face. And still more came down, in that same, steady stream, lifting from him all the sweat that came and dried while he had dreamt; the salt from where he'd refused to wipe his tears. Down, down, all of them; and up - up he went, the weight going with the water and his heart going buoyant with the air.

Just as he'd feared.

He had never felt so clean in all his life.

* * *

It had only been two hours. Maybe three. There weren't sun dials here; just day and night, and there'd only been a pocket of time in between the two, and that was all that had passed since Shigeru had broken apart from the hurt; the pain. And then at last, from adoration.

He and Satoshi had already gone to bed, their stomachs filled from the small bounty that Haruka had offered. He had some pride that in that the time between their conversation and their good nights, he'd said nothing of the words that had been pummeling his mind; hadn't told Satoshi that he'd spoken the most perfect words that Shigeru had heard in his entire life.

Shigeru tried to fight back the event from his mind but he could not do so with any more success than he'd had at the onset. Part of him was still floating up there in the steam, the part that had written himself off forever. He had hope, suddenly; too much hope for a person who couldn't possibly have anything left to hope for. He had peace. And in some paradoxical way it strung him with a thrumming, living tension. Blankets wrapped him in warmth from both under and below, but sleep was as far and elusive from him as the waves reaching for the sands of Alph.

Shigeru watched Satoshi sleeping through the slits of his eyes as they laid on the could see the outlines of face and arm through dimmed moonlight, close and near, revealing that Satoshi had moved their pallets closer together at some point in the course of the previous night. Most likely he'd done it to keep an eye out in case Shigeru were to have taken a turn for the worse. But he'd forgotten, evidently, to move his own bedding back to its original place, and now there wasn't space for a man to lay on his side between their beds.

With the room in shadows and his eyes squinting, Shigeru could imagine without trouble that he and Satoshi were sharing a single bed. And with his mind darkening, ever so eventually, he could imagine that he and Satoshi were just as close.

He reached out a lazy hand and felt for Satoshi's. It was there between them on the ground, open, as if waiting for him. Like some nights before, Shigeru stole it and took it into his own. But not only for the heart-tug of a moment, but this time he bent down, curving his body like a bow. Gently, he lifted the hand to his face and brought his lips to the center of Satoshi's palm.

In the dark, it tasted like dry things. Like wood and salt. It smelled like old hay, from their beds. It was distinctive, earthy - it both grounded him and went straight to his head. Shigeru let the hand go, arranging it back on the ground with agonizing care; he bent over further, huddling in towards his pallet and the earth it rested on, and he shook from his shoulders to his bones. The taste of salt grew stronger.

He was crying again, but no one had to know.

* * *

The next morning was a smooth return to normal routine, even if Satoshi had accidentally started walking toward the Bathhouse before remembering that they'd already visited it the night before. Shigeru laughed at him, leaving Satoshi with the distinct impression that Shigeru had known his mistake the entire time but was just waiting for Satoshi to catch on. Satoshi stuck out his tongue, and Shigeru responded the same. And then they carried on, taking their rambling walk through the brightening limestone corridors and along the Trough, until at last they arrived at the head of the dead-end street where Tano lived and worked.

They found the potter seated lazily in the smoky morning shade of his singular tree with an assortment of tools strewn around his feet. Shigeru sauntered up ahead of Satoshi with a natural swing in his step, starting up a conversation with his mentor as pleasantly as if he hadn't spent the previous day in bed, essentially skipping work. His face was bright; he looked like he didn't have a care in the world. Sleep, Satoshi could see, had been good to him.

For a moment, Satoshi started to reflect on the events that had led up to Shigeru's happiness, which had somehow tied into his spontaneous breakdown after they talked about the events at Alph. But as soon as the memories started he skidded his brain to a stop. He'd process the revelations Shigeru had made later, when he had time alone. When he didn't have Shigeru distracting him in the edge of his field of vision.

After all, if Shigeru didn't think it was important enough to deal with at that moment, then why should he? Satoshi was content to accept that Shigeru had said all he'd needed to say the night before.

He meanwhile put down his water jug, and curiously inspected the bowls and utensils that Tano had left out, turning them over in his hands. Shigeru joined him soon after he started, though with a bit less scientific vigor than Satoshi had come to expect. In the middle of his conversation, he had picked up a braided cord and was twisting it between his fingers like it were an idle trick.

"So what's all this for?" Satoshi asked Tano, interrupting the interlude.

"We're obviously going to be decorating the pots," Shigeru interrupted baldly, though to his credit, he said it without spite.

"Obviously?" Satoshi echoed. Actually, as far he was concerned, it hadn't been that obvious, since there weren't exactly paints and stuff scattered around the grass and on the mats that Satoshi would have thought necessary for decorating. Before he could get the question out of his mouth, Tano was agreeing with Shigeru.

"That's precisely right, Shigeru," he said, and rubbed his chapped, wrinkled hands together with merriment. "You two are ready to progress to more advanced techniques."

Shigeru showed more than a trace of self-satisfied pride upon hearing this. Satoshi deflated.

"Umm..." He looked up at his mentor doubtfully. "Are you really sure that I'm ready?"

He couldn't help thinking about the beginning of the week, when he and Shigeru had been trying to make thick rims for the ornamental jugs and he had broken through the clay formed walls so many times that Tano-san eventually took away his clay made him sit and watch him and Shigeru doing the task correctly for the rest of the afternoon. That had been humiliating enough to bring his rank down from a Level 79 to a Level 66 in a single blow. It had felt almost as bad as losing a _Gym Badge. _

"What do you mean?" Tano answered, interrupting Satoshi's reverie. "Of course you are."

"I wouldn't know about that," Shigeru pitched in. "Satoshi's not exactly the artistic type."

"What, and you are?" Satoshi had retorted.

"Calm down, boys," said Tano. He stood between them, placating. "I haven't even explained what you're doing and you're already getting so agitated..."

"I'm not agitated _yet,"_ said Shigeru, folding his arms in mock agitation. "Just tell me what we're doing."

The three sat down in the grass, stretching out as Tano began to explain the tiny knives, sticks, stones, and pricked pieces of hide, one by one. He showed them how to hold the tools; the way to press with the tools. He dug into, scrubbed against, and clawed at the dirt in the middle of where they sat with each item in turn for his examples. Finally, he got to the cord. Tano rolled it exactly the way that Shigeru had been doing in his hands, except not between his fingers but with his palm face down over the dirt.

"Oh. Oh, absolutely not. _This_ is the clay I've kept from your first attempts at grinding down the minerals," continued Tano placidly. "It's not much better than mud."

"Glad to know how much he respects our craftsmanship," said Satoshi sarcastically, and Shigeru laughed, his blue eyes twinkling. Satoshi grinned back. The mood was infectious. Even after - after some time (he had gone for so long without a clock that he wasn't sure how long it had really been), Satoshi had managed to wet and knead his first lump of clay into a bowl. The task done, he looked at the tree stretched above him, with the sunlight radiating through the leaves and branches. The sharp rays highlighting the harvest of full, ripe berries that hung down from the twigs like dark clumps of hair. He furrowed his eyebrows, concentrating on the play of light, color, and shadow, as if the act alone could summon inspiration.

Tano had told him, after all, "To decorate something with beauty, you need to be surrounded by beauty."

It didn't seem to be very apt for Satoshi, because the firm and sticky clay bowl in his hands had completely failed to transition from a piece of dirt to 'art.' And the longer he stared at the tree, the more convinced he was that it was really nothing more exciting than... well, a tree. And the clay in his hands was, like Tano had said, just a bunch of ugly mud.

_Especially_ with the stab mark he'd accidentally made into the clay while leaning back to look at the tree.

"You're using that bamboo-knife wrong," said Shigeru mock-helpfully from beside him.

"Go away," muttered Satoshi, sullen. But Shigeru continued without missing a beat, pointing at the scribble that Satoshi had scratched in the center of his bowl.

"Those are either poor attempts are hieroglyphs, or poorer attempts at English."

"It's a picture," he defended.

"_Oh_," said Shigeru, as if he hadn't known it all along.

"Yeah, a picture of your face. And before you say anything about how ugly it is, you should shut up or I'll draw a wart on your face," Satoshi threatened.

Shigeru scoffed and pointed at a lumpy clump of lines etched in the center of the 'face'. "Looks like I already have a wart. Or one hell of a beauty mark."

"That's a _nose,_" Satoshi's cool facade withered in a whiny despair, and Shigeru laughed. He leaned his back against the base of the tree trunk and continued talking from behind Satoshi's shoulder.

"You're not just bad, you're terrible," he said. "You make a way better pokemon trainer than artist."

Satoshi looked over at Shigeru's jar. Predictably, the lines of the rope were symmetrical, complementary to the roughly hewn swirls and triangular patterns. Scraped into the jar at places were grooves; at others, braided weaves. Shigeru was predictably _a natural!_

"Can I see it?" he asked.

"Go for it," said Shigeru, passing the pot over. "Don't even think about messing it up. I know where you sleep."

"Like destroying it would accomplish anything," Satoshi muttered. "You'd just make another, better one."

Shigeru accepted the compliment with smug satisfaction and leaned back against the tree. Satoshi eyed Shigeru's piece in his hands, passing it back and forth between his palms critically. He couldn't believe it. Shigeru had obviously surpassed him completely. In Satoshi's mental tally, Shigeru's standing skipped straight from level 84 to 100. And Satoshi was still a meager 66.

He turned Shigeru's cool clay carefully in his hands, touching gently in the corners so as not to smear anything. The inside bottom of the pot had lines drawn down into it, apparently with some degree of purpose. Satoshi looked closer. After a moment of squinting, he could see that the lines were delicately etched Kanji, lined up in an off-balanced symmetry. He caught the characters for 'dragonfly' and 'lotus blossom' - which meant it was a poem about summer.

"Ah, you found that," commented Shigeru. His voice was still smug and nonchalant from the earlier praise.

"I can't believe you wrote a haiku inside your pot!" Satoshi exclaimed, his earlier jealousy forgotten. He looked up, grinning at Shigeru. "Remember when you wrote that one for me, in Sinnoh? About our friendship?"

Shigeru's expression altered quickly. Instead of being happy at the nostalgia, his face turned towards that of vague surprise and discomfort.

"...Yeah, now that you mention it," he said.

"Geez, you practically sound like you forgot about it!" Satoshi picked up his own jar and resumed drawing. "Your own poem."

"I hadn't thought _that _hard on it," said Shigeru mildly. "It wasn't a big deal."

"Huh. But you know, Hikari though it was really, really good. After you said it, she wrote it down somewhere - she thought it would be famous someday, but eventually lost interest and I found it. It's probably still in my backpack somewhere back home."

For a long time, Shigeru didn't answer. And then Satoshi realized what he'd admitted. He ignored the embarrassed heat in his face, doggedly focusing on his own decorations for several minutes until Shigeru passed him a plate. The curiosity broke the blush, and Satoshi looked at the plate, and then Shigeru in confusion. After the third look at the plate, he could see that, like Shigeru's earlier pot there had been something scratched onto the bottom. Another haiku? Bemused, Satoshi read.

_Even though he's male_  
_Satoshi of Pallet Town_  
_acts just like a girl._

Said Satoshi of Pallet Town flipped from bemusement to outrage. Who was Shigeru to talk! he wondered. He was the one who'd written him a poem in the first place, _and_ a sentimental poem, no less! Also, he was the one who'd broken the pokeball a second time, for that matter! Satoshi began to squeeze the edges of the clay plate in his hands, indenting the edges with his fingers, and only once he heard Shigeru snickering, did he look up. And he realized that Shigeru had been - joking.

He read the message again, and blushed. He quickly flattened out the marks that he'd made accidentally with his fingers, and picked up the sharpened end of his hollow decorating reed. Within a minute he passed the clay pot back to Shigeru - now inscribed with a rebuttal.

_For a scientist__  
Pallet Town's Shigeru is  
too touchy-feely_

Shigeru's face crinkled - he was obviously offended - and had an answering retort etched on the clay within a minute.

_Pallet's Satoshi_  
_is rather stupid for a_  
_pokemon trainer_

Satoshi crossed out the last few words. "Pokemon _Master_," he corrected, pleased that it even kept with the syllabic structure of the haiku. Shigeru crossed out the correction, and in its place wrote "sub-par human being."

Shigeru received the dish several more times - they were passing it back and forth now with matching grins - and it was amazing that Tano never became aware of, or squelched, their diversion from their task. But then, he'd said that the plate was only as good quality as the mud, so maybe he didn't care.

After perhaps the longest wait in their exchange, Shigeru passed back the goblet with a picture of a fat, but oddly cute Pikachu shooting lightning in every direction. Beneath the pokemon lay the caption, "At least I don't ride on the successes of others."

Satoshi all but growled when he caught onto the rather cutting insinuation. He came up with a suitably sharp retort of his own - "At least I don't dig up dead pokemon for a living" - but the plate had become rather full of messages, so he just slugged Shigeru on the arm. It felt just as satisfying, anyway.

* * *

The evening meal came in parts that evening. First, Masato appeared, a rare enough thing with how he tried to avoid his own house-guests; but not only that, he came on his own to announce that Haruka would be slightly late in bringing their dinner.

"I wouldn't have really noticed," Satoshi admitted. "She's really that scheduled?"

"I wonder..." Shigeru began, before shrugging it off. "Anyway, thanks, Masato."

"No problem," said Masato stiffly.

Satoshi had rather expected that Masato would run off, now that he no longer _had _to be around them. However, rather than leaving he hovered by the doorframe, aloof and self-absorbed until Haruka - and the meal - and Hikari - arrived some minutes later. He made no sign of recognizing it, but Satoshi and Shigeru couldn't miss their dramatic entry even if they'd been trying to. They - and probably the rest of the street - could hear the yammering of shrill and pitch-dumb voices several minutes before the pair even neared the house, heralding the arrival of dinner. As Satoshi was increasingly becoming certain, Haruka and Hikari in the presence of each other, never, _ever _signaled anything good.

The pair were completely incoherent in their argument, right to the point where they were outside the door, and the boys could see from the shadows cast under the door that they were tugging the basket back and forth with angry jerks. Satoshi could pick out a few

hissed words and spit-out phrases, like, "-my job-" "I want to-" "priestess" and even what might of been some mildly screeched curses.

"What are they _doing_?" wondered Shigeru with mild shock.

"I don't know," said Satoshi. "I just hope they don't drop our dinner."

He'd barely spoken the words when Hikari and Haruka crashed through the door with tight, unnatural smiles and a facade of happy cooperation belied in the harmony of their hands holding the basket between them. Masato rolled his eyes from his place at the wall.

"Hi Satoshi," said Hikari, nearly gushing. "Hi Shigeru."

"How are you this evening?" asked Haruka brightly.

"Hungry," answered Satoshi. "But good, I guess."

"I'm hungry, too," Hikari blurted out.

"Is there a reason you two were figh-"

Shigeru didn't have a chance to finish before Hikari had barreled forward and leeched onto Satoshi's arm. "You know what I think? I think," she announced, "You should come have dinner with me!"

"Umm, you just brought us dinner," said Satoshi. He tried to regain his arm, but with no success; when he tried to bring it back to his chest, he just moved Hikari closer to him with it.

"Haruka," Shigeru addressed the other priestess, "Were you both thinking of eating dinner with us tonight?"

Haruka answered slowly, "I admit, it had crossed my mind, but I wouldn't want to be an _inconvenience."_

Satoshi couldn't explain it, but the way Haruka had said the last word had seemed directed at Hikari.

To say that the tension of their earlier fight still hung between them in the air was pretty much inaccurate. Satoshi felt like he was choking on the anger between the two girls, and Satoshi could only wonder what it was about. He turned into Shigeru's conversation with Haruka, wondering if that would illuminate anything. He doubted it, since Hikari and Haruka - and even Masato, in his way - were all acting like nothing was going on.

"To be honest, I'm still recovering from the other night," he was saying. "I don't think I'd make good company."

Suddenly, Hikari appeared in the center of his field of vision, bending low and affording him a stunning view of her cleavage, off-set by long and trailing silver jewelry. "What about you, Satoshi?" she cooed. "Please, _please, _if you don't want to go out, won't you let us, or at least me, stay and eat with you? Like I was saying, you owe me."

Satoshi had no idea how to reply to that.

"You have a point," he said reluctantly.

"Actually, you don't. He doesn't owe you anything," interrupted Shigeru from his side.

"Yes, he does! He _already _told me we would get to spend time together, but we didn't." Hikari straightened and shot Shigeru a thin glare. Her bracelets clacked like the angry pincers of a crab. "Well if you need to rest anyway, Shigeru, then you should just let him go out and do whatever he wants."

"What if I get sick again and die here alone?"

"I could stay here with you," Haruka offered. "It would be my pleasure, really."

Shigeru's expressions oscillated wildly from surprise, to panic, in the space of half an instant. Satoshi knew that expression well enough but couldn't figure out what could've brought it on. Of course, it happened so fast that Satoshi wasn't sure if he'd imagined it - except that the resulting indifference on Shigeru's face was too defensive, even for Shigeru, who could switch on his walls as fast as a Pidgeot turning midair.

"You know what? I'm tired too," lied Satoshi quickly. He stretched out his arms and feigned a yawn. "Plus, we have to go to the baths after this. We could, uh, catch up later."

Hikari looked tremendously put out. "When?"

"Some time... later?"

"But we were really looking forward to spending time with you tonight," pouted Hikari. "Are you sure-"

"They're sure," intervened an exasperated Masato. "So will you two come home already and think about _my _dinner for once? I'm starving here."

"We don't want to keep you from sleeping," said Haruka carefully, to Shigeru and then to Satoshi, and then somehow back to Shigeru again. "It's too bad that you're tired, is all."

Hikari shuffled awkwardly to the door, picking up Haruka along the way.

"Sorry, Masato," Haruka apologize to her brother. "We'll go take care of you, now."

"You should've _already_," grumbled Masato, and exited without even saying 'goodbye.' Haruka and Hikari gave a last fleeting glance at the room - offering their good nights - and then left, too.

The door panel swung down, and settled into place. It was quiet again, but only once Satoshi could see the dust clouds dropping in the wake of their exit did he let out a sigh of relief. He could hear Shigeru taking their dinner out from the basket and Satoshi joined him eagerly.

"So that whole fighting... wanting to eat with us... 'girl thing' just now was kind of weird," said Satoshi.

Shigeru paused in spreading a bread crust with a creamy, sweet-selling tamarind sauce, and held up the knife as if contemplating it.

"Don't sound so surprised. They're w_omen,_" he concluded.

Satoshi completely understood, and laughed.


	18. Chapter 18

Thanks as always to my readers, my reviewers, and my beta, Vivian. Hope you all enjoy this next chapter!

**In Ruins**

Chapter Eighteen

* * *

"So, I don't really understand why you wanted to come to Alph in the first place," said Satoshi out of the blue. He paused to assess the cross-hatch line he'd affected onto his clay with the blunt edge of a twig, and rubbed it off with the pad of his finger. "I mean, you used to be working in the Orange Islands making pokemon out of fossils. I always thought that sounded exciting."

"It was," answered Shigeru, distantly. "But only at first."

They were at Tano's, decorating pottery again. But somehow, they seemed to be getting worse at it rather than better. It seemed as if over the past few days since the accident, they had been as focused on conversation as it had been on decoration. There was no question in Shigeru's mind that something had been changing and deepening since the accident. They had begun to speak of the past. They usually had nothing more than anecdotal to speak about, but even that was significant. Shigeru couldn't even remember the last time that Satoshi had done more than off-handedly mention the time he'd spent traveling the world.

In a lull of silence, Shigeru looked up to see if Tano had caught on to their diversion. Far from it, the master potter was humming to himself as he collected mulberries from his tree. He was stooped over and laying them out in neat rows under the sun. Satoshi had been quick to catch onto the edibility of the little fruit that occasionally dropped onto his head and shoulders, and every now and then he would put down his tools to pop a fresh berry or two into his mouth. He was a messy eater, though. When he bit down on the fruit, juice dribbled out from his bottom lip and stained it. And then his fingers, which he would have to clean as well.

Shigeru couldn't say that he minded. But it was also true that he couldn't look away. When Satoshi left a spot of the juice ignored, Shigeru had to restrain himself from reaching out and touching the stain with his lips; from tackling Satoshi and licking it off with slow and languid swipes of his tongue. The fantasy was completely inappropriate, though, and Shigeru knew it, but Satoshi's unwitting performance wasn't _too_ innocent to be ignored. Satoshi wasn't a little boy anymore - not in any way at all. And neither was he. So time after time, Shigeru looked in spite of himself; and every time he did, he fought against the tightness in his groin and tore himself away.

The need to touch Satoshi was getting worse all the time. He really had to get himself under control, but it was so hard to distract himself from Satoshi when they were together all the time. And it had been over a week since he'd found time to sneak off and deal with his 'morning problem' while Satoshi slept.

"So?" Satoshi broke his increasingly dirty reverie. "Why did you go to Alph, anyway? You know, the first time. As a researcher."

Shigeru settled on the distraction with welcome relief.

"The reasons I liked pseudo-paleontology had to do with how tactile the results were," he confessed. "We were re-creating life from bones. You could see the product of your work so easily. But... the field lacked creativity. Once we'd figured out the secret to restoring life, there just wasn't much left to do. Every day it was the same old, same old. DNA extraction, cell tissue manipulation, incubation..."

Shigeru tried to gauge Satoshi's whether Satoshi was comprehending anything he said. It didn't seem like his interest was particularly piqued, but he was listening, so Shigeru continued more simply,

"...Anyway, that's why I decided to stop studying bones and decided to study how ancient pokemon used to live and think. That seemed like a bigger challenge. So after traveling through Sinnoh, I set off for Alph with a team who were planning to do research already."

"And that was the team studying the Unown at Alph, right?" asked Satoshi, and Shigeru nodded in confirmation. "The only thing is, I don't get how Unown are ancient pokemon. They're not exactly extinct."

"Ah. Well, pokemon that lived at the same time as an ancient people are considered ancient pokemon. Staraptor, Altaria, and the other pokemon here in the Coop would be considered ancient pokemon, too. We've researched all of them at the lab in Alph."

"Oh, wow," said Satoshi. "I never realized that. So I guess there'd be such a thing as an ancient Pikachu."

Shigeru looked at his friend and quirked a brow. "Probably. And you've probably noticed how pokemon here in Alph - in the past - are bigger, right? So that Pikachu would have one hell of a Thunderbolt attack, I'd bet."

Satoshi's mood sobered so quickly that Shigeru felt himself grow tense.

"I've never been away from Pikachu for this long," said Satoshi, his voice nearly cracking at the start, "Alph is great and all, but I miss everyone. I want to see them again... and you know what else? I miss seeing pokemon every day. Like Pikachu, and the others."

"We're going to see them again," Shigeru said. "So you don't have to talk like that. We're going to solve the legend, and we'll go back. _Soon._"

"Yeah," said Satoshi. But it was easy to tell he wasn't convinced.

The rest of the afternoon rolled by so pleasantly that Satoshi was taken aback when Tano told them that they could go back home for dinner. He'd pointed to the sun that was closing in on the frames of the sky and then began to gather his tools.

Shigeru protested. "But I'm not even close to finished!"

"Aren't you even kind of hungry yet?" Satoshi looked at him in pure amazement. Shigeru had to admit that Satoshi had a point, but then, Satoshi didn't really understand the artistic process at all. Finishing work, as far as he saw it, wasn't more complicated to him than to put down the marking brush.

"I'll eat when I eat. My stomach can wait a couple of minutes. Go wash your hands," he said lightly. "I'll join you in a second."

"Okay," said Satoshi, stretching out. "See you soon."

The word 'soon', Shigeru realized after some time, was surprisingly vague.

As he sat in meticulous scraping, he felt the minutes drifting by, as hot and lazy as the air around him. He wondered at first if Satoshi had gotten dirtier than usual. Then, as he moved on to his next blank panel, he wondered if Satoshi had been distracted. That quickly led to the thought that he was being paranoid, and he was determined not to be, no matter what.

But he had to give in eventually. By the time that Tano began to gather the mulberries for safe keeping, and the sky was streaked with a purple stain of clouds, Shigeru could no longer stand it. He got to his feet, and walked toward the Trough.

"Satoshi?" he called out.

When a reply didn't come, he began to walk faster.

He turned the corner of Tano's home, and whipped his head from side to side. He shut his eyes tightly and counted as if the act alone would change his perception. But when he opened his eyes, there was no accounting for it: Satoshi was gone.

* * *

"If you'd wanted to spend the afternoon with me," said Satoshi, his words as reasonable as his voice whiny, "You could have just asked."

His captor just barely turned her face to show her scowl. She didn't seem to care that he had just endured five minutes of solid abuse, and now, his right arm had started to lose its circulation. Both of Satoshi's arms, in fact, were caught up and twisted in a deep burgundy scarf that shimmered with thumbnail sized golden coins. They clacked and shivered as the younger priestess of Alph pulled at the fabric that entrapped his limbs, and they slapped his forearms in mid-step with such force that Satoshi was sure that they would cause his skin to bruise.

But lasting marks of torture were to be expected, he figured, when he was being led away by a kidnapper.

"Hikari, this is really overkill," he said.

"_Overkill? _How!" she answered on the edge of hysteria. "I've been asking you to spend time with me for _weeks._"

"Okay," Satoshi had to admit, "That's true, but-"

"So, I asked around and made sure that you'd have no plans this evening." Haruka pulled a little harder on the scarves to emphasize her point. "And since you don't, I _made _plans. We're going to have dinner."

Satoshi half-expected his stomach to growl in audible relief. He may have been kidnapped by Hikari- as if being brought to this island by the Unown wasn't essentially kidnapping in the first place - but at least he wasn't going to starve.

"That's good news," he said. "I wasn't really sure whether you were actually trying to abduct me when you attacked me at the Trough."

"It wasn't an attack!" Hikari defended.

"You covered my mouth and dragged me away," said Satoshi. He shrugged his shoulders, attempting to rearrange his arms more comfortably. "So, is Shigeru coming, too?" he asked.

"Honestly, Satoshi, do you see Shigeru around here?"

Satoshi got the impression that she was being sarcastic, but before he had the chance to ask for her clarification, Hikari continued, her voice dropped down several octaves. "Besides, wouldn't it be more fun if it was just us two?"

"Sure, I guess," said Satoshi. "But Shigeru and I always eat together."

"Only almost always. I heard from Haruka that you went over to Kasumi and Takeshi's without Shigeru at least once, so how is that any different from this?"

Well, Satoshi started to say, the couple hadn't essentially kidnapped him to make him come over to their house. But then, he reasoned, he didn't have a good reason not to be spending time with Hikari if he was spending time with Kasumi and Takeshi. Even though she was still acting weird, they were friends, weren't they?

"It's not so different, I guess," said Satoshi. "Let's hang out."

"Great!" Hikari clapped her hands together as she let out a squeal. But she hadn't let go of her scarf, so Satoshi lurched forward and nearly fell over. Even though he hadn't toppled, he had the feeling that the experience should've been quite painful, but he couldn't feel past his elbow anymore.

"Hikari," he ventured, "Could you let me go now?"

She put a finger to her chin.

"Hmm... no."

"I promise I won't run."

"I know you won't," said Hikari, "because you can't."

She rounded the corner, and Satoshi followed after her in a halting scramble of legs.

He could see that they had neared the market in the middle of the town, bustling with the end of the evening's wares. Satoshi had only seen and heard it when he and Shigeru felt like taking walks at night, but he had never actually entered before - after all, Haruka and Masato had always provided more than plenty in their provisions.

It seemed like a very strange choice for his kidnapper to take him to.

Up close, torchlight casted shadows, illuminating smiles and vendors finishing off their day of wares. It gave a new emphasis on the food. And it was really delicious-looking food - fish being cooked on stakes, skewers of crab with their pincers tied shut, little balls of octopus laid out on giant banana leaves.

His mouth watering, he turned to Hikari. "Please tell me we're eating."

"Of course we are! What did you think I was going to do with you? Take you back to my house and leave you there to rot?"

" Kind of?"

Hikari abruptly stole back her scarf, and replaced its' grip on his arm with her fingers.

"You're so strange, Satoshi," she said, tugging at him as she began to walk into the midst of the scene, "But I like that. Anyway, let's go eat dinner!"

* * *

Shigeru was not ranting, really. He was having a full-bodied conniption fit. The angry show extended from him in every possible manifestation - his arms flailed, his feet paced, a frown overwhelmed his face when his lips weren't too busy forming the words of his angry diatribe. A safe distance from him, Haruka sat beside the fire and poured the tea.

"I can't believe, that Tano would do this to me," he spewed. "How could he just let Hikari take Satoshi away like that!"

"Shigeru," Haruka tried with the calm forbearance, "Tano wasn't doing anything to try and hurt you."

"He wasn't trying to do anything _kind_," Shigeru argued.

"Yes, he was. Tano was doing something very kind; he was helping two friends spend some time together. Two other friends," she clarified.

Shigeru sneered.

"Hikari is not just 'some friend' trying to spend some time with Satoshi. Anyone who isn't blind can see that Hikari wanted to spend time alone with Satoshi."

"Yes, I had gathered as much," said Haruka mildly. "But is there something wrong with that?"

Shigeru felt a whine creeping up in his throat and tried to rein it in.

"No," he said reluctantly. Even in his own mind, his voice sounded fairly pitiful.

But Haruka was right; after all, if he were sane he would freely admit that there was nothing wrong with friends spending time together. However, he wasn't sure if he were fully sane anymore. He'd felt his grip on reality growing less strong with each day since the incident in the Temple. To be fair, he'd been intentionally living like in a dream up until then. When Satoshi had been gone, before, he'd only had to deal with _missing _Satoshi. But now, being apart from Satoshi amplified his distress about everything: about the nature of the people of Alph, about his alleged purpose in Alph, and about his _future _in Alph – assuming he even had one.

It was impossible to tell Haruka what was happening without sounding ridiculous.

It was also impossible for him to explain the second reason for his anger. It was, at least, much less complicated than an existential crisis. He was simply jealous, when he had no right to be at all.

He knew he wasn't misinterpreting things- that when Hikari had said she wanted to be alone with Satoshi, it meant that she wanted to go on a date with him. It had all been so clear in the way Hikari had practically fallen across Satoshi's lap the other night, her boobs just dangling in front of him like melons that had escaped from the stand, and it wasn't like her clothing left anything to the imagination in the first place. Plus, she had been completely disgusting in pleading for Satoshi to come with her, with her pouty lips and drooping eyes and sad faces- it made him so angry he couldn't even stand to think about it.

"Ugh, what is wrong with her?" he growled.

Haruka let out a soft sigh.

"Oh, Shigeru," she said.

Shigeru's head snapped up, and his eyes honed in to the place where Haruka sat on the floor. He'd forgotten, for a moment, that she was still there. Now that he could see her, it was hard to miss the raw emotion in her expression. It strangely made him feel defensive.

"What?" he asked her, grouchily.

"You're acting like she's doing this just to hurt you. But can't you understand how she feels?" Haruka tried. "How love feels?"

Shigeru let out a 'humph.' "That is not the problem," he retorted. He knew exactly how it felt to be stupidly in love, and with Satoshi. He knew it better than Hikari did. He had plenty of years of experience.

"Everyone has the right to try and be happy," Haruka tried again. "You shouldn't try and keep Satoshi from having a chance at that."

"I want Satoshi to be happy," Shigeru defended. He turned back to Haruka. "Hikari won't make him happy."

"But if she did?"

"She won't."

Haruka smiled to herself, but appeared to let it go. "You're stubborn," she said, half-teasing. "And agitated. I suppose you'll spend the evening pacing instead of eating, then?"

She held out a morsel toward him, and Shigeru stopped. He closed his eyes, and collected his breath with effort.

"No," he said intentionally, "No. I want to eat."

He crossed the room and sat down across from Haruka. As he settled, he put his hands on his knees, waiting for Haruka to fill his plate with food. She wasn't slow, exactly, but for some reason he couldn't stop his fingers from tapping with impatience, or from straining at his hair; the urge to move, to do something, to distract himself from his anxiety, was insatiable.

Finally she passed him a flat-bread bun filled with spicy ground meat. Seeing her rather delicate hands on the food, Shigeru was reminded that he could be grateful for something in the midst of Hikari's treachery: at least Haruka was here, so he didn't have to be alone.

"Thanks," he said, mentioning the food. But then he found more words spilling from his mouth, "- and for staying for dinner, too."

"It's nothing," she said, a smile in her voice. "No one wants to have to eat alone."

Shigeru shrugged. "I used to eat alone all the time. But I've just gotten used to Satoshi being here, all the time, so..."

As soon as he said it, of course, he was thinking about Satoshi and Hikari together again. Suddenly the taste of the food was bitter in his mouth.

"Haruka, you don't really think they'd be good together, do you?" he queried.

She swallowed her bite of fruit, having chewed on it thoughtfully.

"Satoshi and Hikari, you mean? It's hard to say."

Shigeru grunted once in disagreement. "Maybe hard for you. But I think Satoshi would be terrible with her, or with any girl for that matter."

"You sound convinced," Haruka commented.

"Because I am. Satoshi is the most oblivious person I've ever met."

"Hikari is one of the most straightforward people I've met," Haruka returned. "To a fault, as this situation might show us. It could work out for them."

Shigeru knew he was clutching at straws, but he couldn't stop himself. "Just having complimentary personalities doesn't mean anything. I'm saying that there's more to it, and Satoshi doesn't have what it takes. Hikari seems like the type of girl with high expectations, you know? And Satoshi isn't a romantic. At all," Shigeru stated. "He wouldn't even know where to start, what to do for a girl."

"Oh? What should a boy do for a girl, then?"

"Romantic things, of course." Satoshi began to tick the options off of his fingers as if making a list. "Give her flowers, or chocolates, talk about how beautiful she looks, write her poetry, or something."

"Is that what you would do, Shigeru?"

The question took him by surprise, and Shigeru blinked. He tried to clear his eyes, but he was seeing things correctly. He wasn't imagining it: Haruka's gaze was coy.

She was flirting with him.

Shigeru's heart sank in his chest. Why did she have to do this; why did Haruka have to be interested in him? If it had been Hikari, he would've known exactly what to do to break her heart and make her leave him alone. But this girl had been good to him during his time in Alph, and so few people had ever been good to him and not asked for anything in return. Not even his own Grandfather had fit that simple requirement.

So he had to stop this. He couldn't let her keep thinking there was hope between the two of them just because they had a strong friendship. And he liked the friendship that they shared, but for that to happen, she had to know where they really stood. It was risky, but there was no other way.

"Haruka," he said quietly. "You need to stop acting like this with me."

"Acting how, exactly?" Her expression clouded with a sort of innocent bafflement. Shigeru wondered how much of it was feigned, or if he really just wasn't making sense.

"Let me start over," he offered.

"Go ahead," said Haruka, with almost an irritating calm. "When you're ready."

"I'm ready right now. And I have something to tell you," he said, and quickly added, "But you're not going to like it."

Haruka furrowed her brow.

"I don't understand what you could have to say that would-"

"- Don't say anything just yet," he interrupted. "I don't want you to have to pretend to be okay with something that you don't like. Just listen."

"Okay," Haruka said solemnly. "I'll listen. What is it?"

"I can't answer your question, Haruka. I don't do romantic things for girls," he said.

Haruka looked somewhat relieved. "So, that's it? You're not a romantic."

"No, that's not what I'm saying! Listen. I don't do romantic things," Shigeru raised his eyebrows emphatically, "_for girls_."

Shigeru tried to make eye contact, to see her face and see if she had understood, but at the last second, he couldn't do it. His eyes darted away, and he decided that he was in for it already so he might as well just keep letting go. His jaw unhinged, and staring at the carpet on the far side of the wall, he let the rest of his words spill out:

"And I'm in love with Satoshi."

* * *

Hikari and Satoshi had taken their meal from an outcropping of rock and grass on the edge of the city, a short deviation off of the road leading to the Perch. They were close enough to hear the sounds of the bird Pokemon, yet far enough from it that the sound of their cries was more musical than shrill.

The spot was nice, too nice; the grass was smooth as baby hairs, the rock slab behind him cool and slick against his back. It made Satoshi slightly upset that he hadn't found it earlier. He could lean against the rock wall, stretch out his feet and be surrounded by only natural things. And when he looked down past his feet, the drop to the beach revealed the hint of flowers waving in moonlight. It was amazing to him that the hibiscus field was still in bloom, as full and pink as it had been when he and Shigeru had arrived a month ago.

"It's beautiful, isn't it," said Hikari from beside him.

"Yeah," Satoshi agreed. He thought he might have seen the dark form of a Wailord emerging from the vast plane of water, breaking through the surface for air, but he could've been imagining it.

A light wind waved in Hikari's hair, catching her three earrings. They jingled as she put her hair behind her ear with an easy smile. She looked a lot less stressed than she had seemed earlier - it had probably changed, thought Satoshi, once she realized that he wasn't actually going to run away at the first chance he got.

Hikari passed him a goblet filled with juice.

"Cheers," she said, and Satoshi raised his cup in salutation before he could've thought better of it.

As Hikari took a long draw from her cup, Satoshi caught a whiff of a spicy taint in the air. It wasn't juice but wine, he realized, a bit upset. The first and last time he had gotten drunk was hardly a month ago, but it had been embarrassing and distasteful enough afterward.

"I'm not going through that again," he muttered.

"What's that?" asked Hikari.

"Nothing," said Satoshi innocently, and raised his cup as if to drink from it. But as soon as she looked away, he discretely poured the wine out on the ground opposite to her.

"This is really nice," she said, curving her back against the rock and stretching out a bit like a Delcatty who had just finished eating a bowl of cream. "Are you having fun, Satoshi?" she asked him.

"Yeah," Satoshi answered honestly.

Satoshi hadn't expected spending time with Hikari to be anything but torture, seeing as he'd been forcibly kidnapped, but things had changed. As he and Hikari had gotten lost among the busy night market, he'd felt his tension draining away. Hikari was easy to talk to. She always had something sharp and amusing to say about the people and the activities going on around them. It reminded him of Shigeru, but in a very distinctively female way. Of course, with the way she was dressed, it was quite hard to forget it. It was also very hard to forget that she wasn't the Hikari he knew from home. From the way she spoke to the way she moved, there were times when this Hikari just seemed like she were an exaggerated version of herself.

"How do you like Alph?" Hikari asked him.

"It's okay," Satoshi answered indifferently.

"Just 'okay'?"

"Well, it's not, honestly. I thought it was great, but I'm not so sure anymore," Satoshi admitted.

Hikari nudged him with her arm. "You can keep going," she said. "I'm not going to be angry if you talk for a long time. I do it enough, after all."

"Well, uh... This place is... Honestly, I liked Alph a lot at first, but it's started to give me the creeps. Shigeru got attacked in the Temple, and there's this legend, right? And while it used to feel exciting, now..."

When Satoshi seemed unable to finish his sentence, Hikari picked the conversation back up. "Of course you don't really like your situation. But putting aside the legend and everything, Alph's not that bad, right?"

"You mean, like, the people and stuff?"

"Yes, especially that," she confirmed.

Satoshi looked at Hikari, then beyond her, out over the water. He thought of Pikachu, battling and laying in sleeping bags together. He thought of his mom and her pancakes, she made the best pancakes. And then he thought of walking through forests with a map in his hand, and the feeling of a first step in a new city.

"It's not home," he said finally. "Alph's not bad, but it's just not home."

"Maybe not yet," said Hikari. "But you could make it your home."

Satoshi turned to look at her fully. "Do what?"

"You could stay in Alph."

Hikari was being serious, he could tell. Her eyes were imploring and intense as she stared at him. Lit in the moonlight, they were almost desperately hopeful and he felt guilty knowing that he had no choice but to let her down.

"No, Hikari..." he said. "I can't do that. Shigeru and I don't belong here."

"You could belong here," she insisted.

"But I don't, and neither does Shigeru. Why are you trying to convince me to stay?"

She answered quickly, "Because you have to. If you don't, you'll ruin everything!"

"What are you talking about?" Satoshi wondered in bewilderment.

"I'm talking about solving the legend. If you want to do it, you have to stay here in Alph. With me."

"Hold on. Is that what the legend says? That I have to-"

Hikari turned away from him slightly, evidently upset. "Not in those exact words," she answered him honestly. "But I... I can't tell you what the legend says. I'm not allowed to."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Satoshi lamented. "This isn't fair."

Hikari grabbed at his wrist with desperation, "Listen, Satoshi, I want to. But Haruka says I can't. That's why I've been trying so hard to get you to do what the legend wants you to do on your own. I had to force you to come here! Doesn't that count as trying to help?"

Satoshi couldn't even start to fathom how kidnapping could ever be helping someone. But then he caught on to the other things she had said, about how she had kidnapped him to the place where they were now. He looked around himself anxiously. Nothing seemed immediately special, but...

"Wait, you were trying to bring me here?"

Hikari actually rolled her eyes.

"I stole you from the Trough to spend time with you. I just happen to like this place."

"That makes more sense," Satoshi began, then stopped. "Wait. No, it doesn't. I thought you said you kidnapped me because of the legend?"

"Yes, that too. Being with you and fulfilling the requirements of the legend goes hand in hand, Satoshi!" Hikari had still been clutching onto his wrist, but Satoshi only noticed now that she released her grip to grab his hand and hold it in her own. "They're connected. Like this."

Satoshi looked down at their intertwined fingers, and then up at Hikari. She was gazing at him almost as if she expected something from him. The moonlight was doing funny things to her eyes again, and was lighting them in a way that Satoshi knew on some deep, instinctual level, he couldn't trust.

"We're connected," Hikari repeated.

"I still don't understand," said Satoshi.

"Then you'll just have to try harder," Hikari answered. She opened her mouth slightly, as if she had something more to say, but decided against it, closing her lips and pursing them in a pout.

And then she leaned in.


	19. Chapter 19

Thanks to my sweet readers and my terrific beta, greenflower, as always, and the special contributions of "M" who helped me work out characterization for attractive yet mysteriously oblivious and ambiguously sexual men.

**In Ruins**

**Chapter 19**

**

* * *

**

It wasn't that Satoshi hadn't been kissed before. It wasn't even that he didn't like being kissed; after all, there was something kind of flattering about having one just sprung on him unexpectedly. It was just - he had never felt anything, never thought anything more than 'oh, that's nice' when a girl had launched herself at him from a crowd of admirers. The kiss, the kisser, they had never mattered. He'd never walked away and wanted to kiss, or be subjected to a kiss, again.

Yet when Hikari started kissing him, he didn't feel that familiar indifference. He didn't felt the residue of accomplishment or flattery or anything like that. If anything he was overpowered by a repulsion as tangible as the body pressed against his own. Nothing was left private: Satoshi could feel the curtain of Hikari's hair drape across his shirt, the outside of one of her thighs brushing against the inside of one of his. Her eyes were closed, still tear-encrusted, but he was just absorbed by how small her eyelids actually were and the way her nose clogged up the middle of her face, and by that one red bump near the inside of her right eyebrow that he hadn't noticed before. She was magnified, like a bug pinned and wriggling under the lens of a microscope, consuming his field of vision in an unnatural but painfully distant way.

Satoshi tried to respond, to think, to snap himself out of shock and get away at the least, but he was overwhelmed by the _confusion _and_ kissing_ and _closeness,_ and when the jumbled thoughts whirling around in his brain skidded to a halt, they finally settled on (of all things) an image of Shigeru when they had been working pottery together earlier that morning.

Shigeru'd been... he'd been smiling at Satoshi, leaning in close, pointing something out on the plate that they were passing back and forth between their hands. His hair had been so bright; each russet strand shining like dull copper, almost blond, as they swept past his blue eyes in the breeze.

It was a thought that shouldn't have happened, but it did. It was just, he was there, with Hikari, and then there was Shigeru and then, the longing to switch places, and _what if it was Shigeru_ -

_What if I was kissing Shigeru instead -_

- And there was this split hair of a moment before he even knew what he was thinking, that the kiss wasn't terrible at all. Satoshi almost even liked it. He could feel on his lips the beginning of a smile.

But then, of course, Hikari shifted, and it all crashed back. He remembered who was kissing him, and the disgust was suddenly more awful than it had ever been on Hikari's behalf alone.

The shock restored enough of his equilibrium that Satoshi was able to break away. He lurched backward, away from Hikari. Freed, he gasped for air and gulped it in as if he'd been drowning for an hour, rather than for mere moments.

He scrambled for a handhold in the grass and only settled back once he found enough dirt to ground his fingers. He tried to ground his breath, but it was too hard when his brain was reeling. He could not overlook the impossible realities before him, either: that Hikari had kissed him, and then of course, that he'd thought of kissing Shigeru, and that had actually made the kiss bearable.

"Hikari," he managed. "You..."

"I'm sorry," she exclaimed. "I'm really sorry about this."

Satoshi could only stare. "You kissed me."

"Yes, I know, and I'm so sorry. I wasn't planning on it all night. I just, I just had to know-" here, she made some ambiguous motion with her hands, "- if we were really connected after all."

"If we _are_ connected," Satoshi ventured, "_at all,_ I don't think it's in the way you tried to show me. I don't see you like that. Like a... a girlfriend."

"I know. I mean, I know that now. It was really obvious that, I... Well, you know. That I had been fooling myself. I think I was wrong about everything. Maybe I wasn't supposed to fit in with the legend after all, and I wasn't supposed to, to _love _you, and..."

"Look, I get it," said Satoshi, cutting her off. He had no idea why she was still talking about why she had thought it was a good idea to kiss him. It wasn't a good idea, and now it was over, and he really wished she'd just leave the topic alone so he could push it from his mind. After all, it had tainted everything that had been so nice and pleasant about the night.

When she finally spoke, her voice was so soft that Satoshi barely heard it: "Are you mad at me?"

"What?" he asked, confused.

Her voice gained power when it answered him: "I _said,_ 'Are you mad?' You look upset."

Satoshi tried to be very clear. "Look, I wasn't expecting you to do... that."

"Of course you were! Didn't I make it so _obvious,_" Hikari voiced the words as if she were not positing a question.

"Not obvious enough, apparently."

"How so? We were on a date, alone, together. Haruka knew, Tano knew, Shigeru knew-"

"Shigeru knew?" Satoshi's attention was fully on Hikari. He stared at her transfixed, more so than he had been the entire evening. "What do you mean, 'Shigeru knew'?"

"He's known for at least three weeks!"

"Three weeks?" Satoshi repeated, dumb-founded.

"Yes. I could see that he knew in his eyes. Because he looked at me once, like he was..." Here, Hikari cut herself off, and floundered, to Satoshi's frustration.

"What are you talking about?"

"Haven't you noticed, the way he just watches sometimes? He'll just sit there and not really answer questions, but lead you in circles so he gets to know what he wants? It's creepy. I don't like it."

"It's not creepy," Satoshi defended. "He's just being observant because he's a scientist-"

"A what?"

"A scien-" Satoshi paused, remembering that Hikari wouldn't know what that word meant. "He's a person who studies," he corrected himself. "And it's not weird, okay? It's just who he is. He doesn't trust people unless he knows what's going on."

"He should be more like you."

Satoshi was suddenly struck by immense frustration with Hikari. How could she say that?

"You know what? I think you're wrong. _I _should be more like _him,_" he returned. "Maybe I wouldn't be stuck here, thinking I had a friend and finding out that she wanted more from me!"

Hikari stared at him, evidently shocked by his tone. Satoshi didn't have the energy to care, not when everything in his mind kept circling back to Shigeru.

"Satoshi, it's not like that..." she began, but he cut her off.

"Yeah, it is," he said. "You kissed me. You liked me. I didn't want it."

"Well, then... What _do_ you want?" Hikari asked him, her voice weak with begging.

Satoshi looked towards the ocean. Unsurprisingly, nothing came out of it like an answer from the hidden depths of his mind, but it was worth a try. "I guess," he said to her after a moment, "I just wanna be alone now. Unless you have anything else to say, I'd really rather you just went away."

"If that's what you want," she answered immediately, and Satoshi was genuinely surprised.

He hadn't expected it to be that easy to make her listen to him, nor did he expect her to submit to his request so quickly. When he looked up after what only seemed like a few minutes, she was nowhere in sight. Her exit had been all but noiseless, not marked by the usual jingle of her bangles or even the swish of her hair where it reached the middle of her back. Satoshi was struck by a feeling of strangeness. With nothing else to do, he stood, gathered the remainders of their meal, and returned to the village, too.

By the time he'd made it back to Haruka's, most of Alph had gone to bed and dimmed their lamps and fireplaces. His and Shigeru's room was also dark, and the fire just a pile of low-burning embers. Satoshi could see, even inside the building, that his breath was eking from his mouth in white, ghost-like puffs. It was cooler than usual, then. Later at night. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he looked around the room. Shigeru was stretched out in his bed already, probably deep asleep. Satoshi wondered momentarily why Shigeru hadn't stayed up and waited for him, but at the same time, he couldn't think of any reason for why he'd had that expectation that Shigeru would do something like that. He reluctantly let the thought go, crossed the floor and laid down on his bed quietly. Everything was quiet.

With the fire so low, his bedding was too thin a layer in the cooling room. Even once he slipped in between the cover and his pallet, he felt a slight chill around him, contrasting sharply with the ring of warmth emanating from Shigeru, not even an arm's reach away.

Had they always been this close to each other? he wondered, turning toward his friend. He could smell the scent of soap and dampness lingering around him. With a heavy heart. Satoshi realized that Shigeru must have gone to the bath without him. _Without him._ Satoshi's heart felt like it was somehow stuck in the wrong part of his chest, and he was choking on it.

He wished it wasn't so dark so he could see Shigeru's face. He just wanted to know if his smile really looked as open as he remembered it being; if his lips looked different up close from a girl's. He'd never focused on the features before, and now it filled him with a definite regret. He would have to wait until morning.

"So... Good night," he heard himself saying to Shigeru awkwardly. The words, once spoken, were completely ineffectual. Shigeru's breathing continued unchanged, and Satoshi decided that he'd been foolish for having broken the silence at all.

He put his hands behind his head, and stared at the blank stretch of the ceiling. He waited for sleep until he couldn't see any more.

* * *

Satoshi could sense the vague shift in the air when he woke. The sun was at its usual place, but the room was cold. He rubbed his upper arms in his hands, resisting the urge to shiver when his warm hands pressed against his goose-bump-risen flesh. The sensation threw him off balance, and did some work in stealing away his sleep. He processed that Shigeru was awake and dressed as usual, sitting before a weak flicker of flames in the fire pit, absent of breakfast. Surely, he thought, that alone wasn't enough to make the room so cold?

Satoshi pulled back his blanket and realized that Shigeru must have given his up in the middle of the night, for it was a heavy weight against Satoshi's legs. Satoshi could only focus on two things; the impenetrably blank expression on Shigeru's face, and the pan with all its tea, a burnt film floating on the top of the brew like a bellied-up fish.

He ladled it into his cup, and sipped it deliberately.

"Where's breakfast," he asked at end.

"Don't know," Shigeru answered. His voice took on a forced lightness. "Doesn't matter. There's no point."

"No point," Satoshi repeated. He stared at Shigeru and willed rational thinking to return to him. Instead, he found himself focusing on the stubborn expression that curved on Shigeru's lips. They were thin lips, Satoshi noticed, with a slight trace of stubble, nothing like Hikari's, ah, that was a thought he wanted to avoid, and quickly diverted his mind to other, more immediate wonders: Shigeru, it seemed, had resigned them not to eat and didn't look willing to brook an argument.

He thought of a question for Shigeru without much trouble. Just when he was about to pose the question of why Haruka hadn't yet brought her morning supplies of breads and fruits, a man's yell carried in from the street. All at once, Satoshi honed in on the source of the noise. The door curtain rippled with the shape of a large man, who seemed to be letting out a long and unhappy cry. From his arms there seemed to be a great heaving - a shadow passed over the wall opposite the windows; and then, in a sudden burst of sound, there was the sound of pottery breaking outside the door, pieces shattering like a cacophony of voices.

Shigeru, much the same, nearly doubled over where he stood.

"Shigeru!" Satoshi cried and reached out to grab onto his waist, but Shigeru pulled away too quickly and left Satoshi clutching at air.

"No! I'm fine," he snapped out, but breathlessly.

Satoshi dropped his hand, listening as some shouted curses carried into the room from outside: a gruff voice letting out his low complaint; the shrill tones of a woman; the distinct grating noises of pottery being moved and kicked around and stepped on.

"It was just the neighbors," said Satoshi. "I think - I think he just dropped something."

Satoshi looked at Shigeru in concern. Surely that the neighbors existed wasn't new knowledge to either of them. But, he wondered if Shigeru's response hadn't had to do with that. What if he had thought the noise had come from something else?

No matter how hard Satoshi looked at him, Shigeru ignored the gaze with what was probably an offended pride. For a moment, Satoshi felt a flame of resentment churning in his stomach, but he bit it down. It was probably just hunger.

"I hope Haruka comes with the food soon," he said.

That was apparently, enough to break Shigeru from the end of his trance. His head snapped up, and he looked at Satoshi was such plain appraisal that Satoshi momentarily thought he'd been stripped bare.

"Is that all you can think about? The food? Are you really content to keep doing this forever?"

Satoshi couldn't understand why Shigeru's voice had grown so brusque. "Keep doing what?"

"Acting like everything's normal. Like this is our lives."

"I-" Satoshi started, but as the words settled into their place behind his ears, he found he could not finish all that he had framed to speak. He tried, instead, a weak return: "This is - I mean, these are - our lives, right?"

"No," said Shigeru with vehemence. "No. Just because we're alive, and we're here, it doesn't make this our lives. This place is not my life, this place is some... something else. I want to leave. I'm sick of this place. I want to go back."

"I thought you were happy here," said Satoshi. As soon as the words were out, he knew they were the wrong ones.

"Will you stop being so oblivious, Satoshi, for once in your life? Do I look happy?"

"You did-" Satoshi stopped. "You _did."_

And then things started, belatedly, to click into place. In a rush, it became clear why Shigeru had panicked when he'd heard the small accident outside their door, why Shigeru had been so irritable since they'd woken up - it was, after all, the morning after he had vanished without telling Shigeru anything.

Shigeru wasn't happy. At least not primarily. It seemed like he was scared.

"Even so," Satoshi began hesitantly. "I don't think you're totally miserable. We're still having fun, aren't we?"

Shigeru smiled faintly. "Well, _you _certainly are."

Satoshi could have sworn there was another layer of meaning to the sentence, but he didn't understand.

* * *

It didn't grow warmer as the day progressed, though the sun remained a faithful time-keeper as it marched across the cloudless sky. Satoshi complained about the changed weather frequently, and that fact alone kept Shigeru from making a show of how much he wished for another layer of clothes. At least, it seemed, their time decorating pots under the tree was over, and their jobs were more aligned with Alph's new climate. They were moved to the kiln, and were learning to gage the heat of flames, to sift the coal, and to hold the clay on a pallet with a steady, even hand.

It was a nice distraction from the two conversations that had come in the wake of Satoshi's disappearance the night before.

The temperature of the fire was strong. His mind supplied him that the kiln had to be at least 250 degrees Celsius to do its work. He could tell that this was the case quite easily: in spite of the chill he'd felt earlier in the day, and the steadily more-freezing drafts that swung in around the edge of the house and onto his back, he was sweating freely by lunch time.

Their first meal of the day was heartily welcomed as a reprieve for both his singed skin and his starving stomach. Shigeru sat at the edge of the table in no hurry to go back to learning the workings of the potter's kiln. Satoshi, unsurprisingly, was faster to voice this than Shigeru. He got the reward of his efforts when Tano stooped on his cane, and said with deep consideration in his voice, "In that case, Satoshi, why don't you gather more materials for the clay, and come back by mid-afternoon?"

Shigeru wasn't letting Satoshi out of his sight again. Not if he could help it. Satoshi spoke up before Shigeru even had a chance to contest the decision.

"Why don't Shigeru and I just go together? We're really efficient that way," he insisted. And then he was out the door, leaving Shigeru to follow behind him with a shrug and a half-bitten-off goodbye.

Satoshi strode down the lane, following its wandering limestone steps until they were trodding the bitter-root red dirt outside the furthest edges of town. As they stood and searched for a patch of ground without any scrubs or stones, Satoshi was quiet; he was almost pensive. It wasn't unattractive, but it was a face that Shigeru was so unaccustomed to that it momentarily took him aback. Shigeru was tired of being surprised, but not too tired to keep himself from growing edgy.

"How's this spot?" he finally asked Satoshi, who shrugged, noncommittal. They began to break into the ground. Only the distant sound of the wind crashing against the edge of the cliffs below Alph, and even more distant bird song, drifted in the thin air between them before Satoshi found his voice at last.

"You seem to be learning about using the kiln really quickly," he commented.

"What, you're not?"

"I don't know. I couldn't really focus on anything Tano was saying."

Shigeru tucked his shovel into the ground and pressed it down with his foot. The dirt gave and crumbled in. "What do you mean," he huffed.

"I was so hungry," Satoshi flashed him an easy smile. "It's too hard to work without breakfast."

"I didn't used to eat breakfast before Alph," Shigeru admitted. "I don't think Grandpa ever made it seem really important."

"But... breakfast is delicious."

"_Food _is delicious; breakfast just happens to be food that is eaten in the morning. I wasn't used to eating food in the morning before I came here, so I guess it's easier for me to go without it every now and then."

"Oh yeah? I heard your stomach rumbling," Satoshi challenged.

"Are you admitting to hearing things again?"

"Come on, it was as loud as an earthquake. Tano heard you, too."

"I'm pretty sure he was commenting about your gastronomical explosion; not mine. I'm starting to think your stomach has its own language."

"Oh man, do you know how awesome that would be..."

Shigeru let Satoshi's reply fall over him like a warm blanket.

"Pretty awesome," he admitted. The return to their banter had soothed him better than any distraction could have afforded, and he leaned against his shovel with a smile.

* * *

It was nearly the end of the afternoon when Satoshi finally breached the subject that he had been avoiding, and that had been hovering on the edge of Shigeru's mind.

"So. Last night," he began mildly as he poured a bucket of water on the kiln. "I think that Hikari and I went on a date."

Steam escaped from the mouth of the rocky basin in a low and sputtered hiss, growing so thick in the twilight that Shigeru quickly lost his view on Satoshi's face.

"Yeah. I figured," said Shigeru tightly, picking up his own filled bucket with a too-strong grip. It was true; he had known that Hikari was attracted to Satoshi, but hearing the evidence stated so baldly filled him with a simmering, jealous rage that he had to press down immediately; that he had to snuff out as summarily as an over-heated kiln.

After all, he had to be logical about this. And reasonable. He had no claim on Satoshi - whether or not he was in love with Satoshi had no effect on what Satoshi chose to do. He was free to do whatever he liked. Free to like whoever he wanted. Free to go on dates with slutty priestesses. It was his choice.

"Tano wouldn't tell me anything except who you were with, but when you came back so late, I figured that something had happened," Shigeru continued vaguely. He focused his eyes firmly on the ground as he lifted his bucket."Well? How did it go?"

"She kissed me."

The entire bucket was unturned before Shigeru knew better, and the kiln replied with a violent _hiss _and streamers of steam lunged into the air.

"Congratulations," Shigeru heard himself saying - and was pleased that his voice sounded even. He was even more pleased to see a scowl twist on the bottom half of Satoshi's face, just barely visible through the swirling smoke.

"That's not what it's like," said the pair of frowning lips. Shigeru focused on them like they were all he could see; and they were. He straightened his shoulders.

"It's not?"

"'s not," Satoshi replied. He took his bucket and lifted it with less ease than Shigeru had. Grimacing, he said, "Aren't you supposed to be the observant one? You don't see Hikari coming back today to see me, do you?"

The water fell on the rocks. _Hisssss. Hisssss._

Shigeru puffed out a hot ball of sarcasm to match. "Oh, I get it," he said. "She's not here because you said something insensitive and ruined the moment."

"Yeah. I ruined the moment when I pushed her away," Satoshi corrected him.

"Why?"

"It's not like I wanted to hurt her feelings... but yeah. I told her it was impossible. She, uh, didn't take it well."

"Cried?" Shigeru asked. This time, he couldn't keep a strain of hope from his voice.

"Yeah."

Shigeru nodded, unable to find any appropriate words to speak. He thought about feelings and impossibilities and relief, and not the least bit of guilt for Hikari because Satoshi, inexplicably, didn't like her - and then it was almost too much. Too much to keep it in. Satoshi already knew that he was gay. What was one more secret off of his chest? He'd tell Satoshi, he decided on impulse. He'd tell Satoshi about Haruka like him, too, and about everything.

"Satoshi, -"

"Hey, did you feel that?" Satoshi interrupted. He stood as if trapped in the frame of a moment, his bucket of water submerged in the icy water of the Trough, his chin lifted up and his eyes on the descending twilight sky. Shigeru copied him, lifting his face as well, and was caught by the touch of something cold attaching itself to the base of his nose.

"Was that a-"

"-snowflake?" Shigeru finished for him. He brought up his hand, and let one land onto the center of his palm. It was - for all of a few seconds - a tiny, immaculate ice creation, before it broke apart into a tiny droplet of water. Not wasting any time, another snowflake caught onto the arm of his sleeve. It melted quickly into the fabric like a shadow, like it had never been there after all.

"It's really snowing!" exclaimed Satoshi. "Shigeru, is this normal? Does it snow in Alph?"

Shigeru just looked and looked. The sun shone behind a flurry of tumbling white flakes, as if it were laughing at him; as if it were withholding from him the punch-line of some cosmic joke.

"How should I know?" he muttered. All thoughts of telling Satoshi about Haruka, Hikari, and himself were forgotten for the time being. He dumped another bucket of water on the kiln, and the steam shot up against the snowfall with a thin but resolute _hisssss._


	20. Chapter 20

Greenflower is doing a good thing for the world as usual with her beta-ing! Thanks for the reviews, I _still _do read each one and clap and giggle like a little girl when I receive them in my inbox. I hope I did a good job answering a lot of your questions. Keep them coming, I love to hear your ideas about the legend and _everything._

* * *

**In Ruins**

Chapter 20

* * *

The steam in the bath house that evening, which usually swirled around the open pipes and puddles of hot spring water like a heavy mist, was so agitated by the onset of cold that it swarmed the room with the appearance of clouds. They were so thick and white that as soon as Satoshi slid shut the door behind him, he lost all sight and sense of the cedar-beamed ceilings and walls of the bath house to an impermeable veil.

"Shigeru," he ventured, "Can you see anything?"

"No," came the unseen reply. "Not that it matters. I know where everything is in here anyway."

Satoshi was less confident. He squinted, and found that could make out his friend's shape, almost more shadow than anything else. His footsteps across the floor, which came in a series of wet slaps, were much clearer. When he listened, there was the familiar, quiet _fsshh _of water streaming from the bamboo pipes in the bathing corners across the room.

Guided by so little, he held his hands in front of him and made his way to the nearest faucet where he bathed himself in silence.

When he finished washing out the last of the soap from his hair, he was startled when Shigeru walked past him and, instead of continuing out of the door, stepped into the pool and enveloped himself in the water and the thick, rolling clouds that hung above it.

Satoshi stepped out back from his stream of water and shivered as the cold drafts of air pricked at his skin. Shigeru had, he decided quickly, made a good choice to change their routine and spend time soaking in the water, instead of just using it to clean off.

He joined Shigeru and sank down a little more than an arm's length away from him. With a sigh of contentment, he settled his back against the worn and slick wood that framed the sides of the pool. It was strange how the warmth from the water seemed to seep into him. Relaxed, he closed his eyes and began to drift in the peaceful fold of the water. It was after some time that he was startled back to consciousness by Shigeru's voice, a break in the unlifting fog.

"Satoshi," he said abruptly, and Satoshi opened his eyes. His thoughtlessness still trailed in his mind like vines wrapped around trellises, and he struggled to clear them.

"Yeah?" he asked, his voice coming out lower than usual. "What's up?"

"I wanted to ask you something."

He let out a 'hmm,' but felt that Shigeru somehow expected more.

"Go for it," he said.

"How do you know the world is real?"

Satoshi was taken aback by the abruptness of the question, paired with the evident indifference in Shigeru's voice. He shrugged his shoulders and watched the water ripple out as a result of the movement. "I don't know," he said. "Because you feel it, I guess."

"In that case," Shigeru answered, "What does it mean if you feel things that aren't there?"

"Uh..."

"Is it still real?" Shigeru continued. "Or does that just mean that _you _aren't part of reality?"

Satoshi opened his eyes. He was unsurprised that the steam absconded his vision of Shigeru.

"I've never really thought about it. I usually don't question the stuff around me like that," he answered slowly.

"Not even recently?"

"No," he told Shigeru, "Not recently. Not ever. Why, have you been? Questioning it, I mean."

Shigeru was extremely frank. "Of course I am. My leg isn't hurting me anymore."

Satoshi stared.

"I don't get how that's connected," he said bluntly, and Shigeru cracked a smirk that didn't reach his eyes.

"I wouldn't expect you to," Shigeru stated. "Don't take that the wrong way. It's not that you're dumb, it's just... How could I expect you to understand something you never felt?"

"I can always try," suggested Satoshi, even as he felt a strange blend of hope and hesitation. "Maybe if you told me I could understand it."

"All right," said Shigeru. He looked at Satoshi for a fleeting moment, then fixed his eyes on something in between the water and the white steam, and began.

"I've had problems with my leg ever since I was attacked in the Temple. That was a few years ago. But then we came to Alph - _this _Alph - and for a month, I didn't feel any pain at all. I could walk normally, run normally, do everything with my legs exactly the same as anyone else _all the time._ However... after the illusion of Foster attacked me, I felt pain again. It wasn't illusory, either; it felt as bad as anything I'd ever felt before. But now I'm not feeling any pain anymore. Why? What does that mean? Was any part of that experience in the Temple real? And if part of it wasn't, then... what about everything else? To be honest, Satoshi, all the things that have been going on since we arrived at Alph have been in direct opposition to the reality that I've known my entire life. So, doesn't it make sense that I would at least _consider _the theory that this world - this _Alph - _isn't real?"

Satoshi tried to let the thought settle in around him, but it didn't latch on. He couldn't even fix his eyes on Shigeru, and see what he was thinking; and it was so frustrating that finally he burst out, "Shigeru, where are you?"

"I'm somewhere to your left, I think," came his reply. Satoshi inched through the undulating steam until he could see Shigeru resting his head on his arms. His hopes of being able to read Shigeru's meaning from his posture was immediately dashed. He was - at least as far as Satoshi could tell - inexplicably relaxed and open, in spite of having just stated an absurd and impossible theory. Satoshi stood transfixed as ripples of water splashed against his stomach, and he tried to speak.

"I thought," he said slowly, "that you thought we were transported to the ancient civilization of Alph by the earthquake. That we traveled through time. Not across... worlds, or something."

"Of course that's what I said _when we'd first arrived._ But I changed my mind; it was all too easy to figure out that this world wasn't the past, and that it wasn't even real. In fact, I've known it for weeks now."

"No way. Everything feels perfectly real to me here. I don't know anything about your leg, but, _I _feel real," Satoshi stated. "Besides, this has to be the past. All the buildings are shaped like the ones that were from the Ruins. And there's no electricity. And they don't have a pokemon league, or pokeballs, or anything, and-"

"Why are you so attached to the idea that we traveled back a thousand years in time? Don't you realize that it's unlikely as anything else?" With that, Shigeru lifted his head and met Satoshi's eyes with a gaze so sharp that it cut straight through the steam like a knife through cotton, and buried in. "I'm not saying that this world isn't 'real,' but you have to at least _consider _that maybe it's not what you think it is. In fact, there's really no way that his place could be the past. Everyone speaks the way we're used to speaking, in the same language, with the same expressions and accents. Plus, we recognize so many people that we know. They have the same ages, the same personalities, even have the same names as _our _friends - and that _can't _be historically accurate. And... and Foster. It wasn't some copy, it was the same person as the one that both of us knew from the future, or wherever we came from. Since he's not part of the legend, it doesn't make sense that he'd arrive here. Does it? No, of course not, so... I just can't believe my old theory anymore. This place - wherever it is - has got to be something that _isn't _history."

"So what if it's not the past," Satoshi managed to say at last. "I don't think that changes anything."

"Why not?"

Satoshi replied earnestly, "Because I still think that this place is completely real. It's not like, like there's other possibilities which could explain how we've been here for an entire month. We're eating and sleeping and stuff just like we would anywhere else, so it's not like we're in some totally different world!"

"But if we were brought here by the Unown -"

"You mean the Protectors?" Satoshi interjected.

"- then almost anything is possible. Research has shown that they have the power to send people across space and into what seem to be new dimensions. It's been theorized that they don't even _understand _the concept of time because most of the time, they exist outside of it. And if _that's _true, whether we're here either for a day or a month wouldn't even matter. I bet that we only need to be here long enough for the Unown to be satisfied. And for that, they'll give us as long as we need."

"As long as we need for _what?"_

"To fulfill the requirements of the legend, duh," said Shigeru. "Don't tell me you forgot about it."

"I hadn't!" protested Satoshi.

Shigeru held out a hand in a gesture of peace. "The point is that you weren't doing anything to get it accomplished, and neither was I. It was just easier to put the legend from our minds than to deal with it, I guess."

"It wasn't just that," Satoshi insisted. "Everyone told us that we weren't supposed to do anything to solve it."

"Everyone was _also _telling us that the legend was the only reason that we were here. It's been over a month since we arrived, and it's time we re-prioritize. You know that."

Satoshi was unable to resist pouting. "No, I _don't_. I don't see why we have to change anything."

"Because I think today made it really clear to me that Alph _is _changing, and that we're the impetus - I mean, we're the cause of all the change here. Our actions are important."

"But we haven't been doing anything!"

"_Exactly,_" said Shigeru. He turned to Satoshi completely and said with fervor, "That's the problem. Because we're not acting, everything in Alph is shifting, _forcing _us to change."

Satoshi shook his head. _"_No, it's not."

"It's not?" Shigeru challenged. "Then what about our being suddenly called up to the Temple? What happened to me in there? And, how, over the past two weeks people have started acting different around us, like they're _desperate? _Tano's really accelerated our training recently. And just think about the _girls. _You didn't talk to Haruka yesterday, so I guess you wouldn't know about her, but you've definitely noticed that Hikari was acting crazy. She even tried to make a move on you last night."

"Yeah, she did and- Woah, wait a second. You said something about Haruka."

Shigeru pursed his lips. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does," Satoshi pursued, "She didn't bring us breakfast this morning. Hey, did you do something?"

"I said nothing happened!"

With that said, Shigeru turned from the wall and folded his arms in defiance. Satoshi copied him without thinking.

"Fine," he said. "You don't have to tell me about Haruka. I don't think you're right about this, anyway. Those things you mentioned could be explained by all sorts of stuff besides us 'not existing in reality.' It's just coincidence, that's all."

"But you have to admit that an alternative is possible," said Shigeru. "That this world isn't what you thought it is."

"No. The way you're talking, you're making it sound like the whole world is focused around us."

"I know that," said Shigeru. "That's what I'm _trying _to make it sound like."

Satoshi felt his voice sharpen as it escaped his throat.

"The whole world, Shigeru?" he asked. "Don't you think that's just slightly self-centered?"

"No, I don't. Because I think this world isn't just a fake reality, Satoshi. I think it was created for us. I think that we're in an illusion," said Shigeru, his voice coming from a place both close and somehow far away.

_An illusion. _The words rung in Satoshi's brain, fighting for him to reject them. _An illusion created for us. _He focused on the water and the wall and his fingers - all things that seemed very real - and tried to calm the suddenly painful beating of his heart inside his chest.

"You think this is caused by the Protectors? Like Foster was, except... everything?"

Shigeru nodded solemnly. But for all his firmness, Satoshi could only shake his head with equal certainty.

"No," he said, resolute, "It's not an illusion. The Unown wouldn't do that, Shigeru."

"I don't see they wouldn't."

"Because if this place is an illusion, then it means that the legend can't be real. And why would the Unown make up a legend? It seems kind of unfair, bring us here, making us do something for absolutely no reason. Pokemon aren't that manipulative. They're not... they're not bad. They're not evil."

"But you agreed with me that the Protectors aren't doing their 'job' of keeping Alph safe. You told me before I even suggested it that Foster was an illusion caused by the Protectors just to hurt me."

"Okay, that was really weird but... maybe it was a kind of fluke. It doesn't mean they have to be _evil_. After all, you can be a good person and sometimes make mistakes!"

"Sure there is. And there's also a difference between making mistakes sometimes, and consistently failing to look out for the interests of others," he said. "Being unable to empathize is about as close as anyone can get to being evil." And at this, Shigeru diverted the conversation on a hairpin turn yet again. "How much do you know about the Greenfield incident, Satoshi?"

"For one thing, I was there," Satoshi answered curtly, once he had gained his bearings. "So I know a lot, actually. Thanks."

"Right," said Shigeru, drawling out his response. "And exactly how much time did you spend observing or thinkingabout what was happening around you?"

Satoshi could feel the heat rising from the water to his cheeks.

"...None," he admitted. "I was trying to save my mom, trying to save Molly... and I was busy, okay? I had a lot to think about."

Shigeru nodded gracefully. "Of course you did. And it's no different from how you are now. So listen and think _now _to what I'm going to tell you. The academic community learned a lot about Unown from the Greenfield incident. We learned that they can create sophisticated illusions - visions and false realities so intense that they will completely immerse people in them. We also discovered that they will interact with people, and it seems to give them pleasure to do so; they're not totally anti-social. But after making that initial contact, they stay at a distance.

"It's not clear why the Hale family was the center of so much attention from the Unown. Both of Molly's parents had been taken by the Unown at different points in time, and at different sites. It has been theorized that the Hale family has a unique, perhaps genetic, connection to the Unown."

"I guess that makes sense," said Satoshi. "I knew about Professor Hale and Molly's abduction, but I didn't know that Mrs. Hale was taken by the Unown, too."

"Actually, her abduction mirrored Professor Hale's in several ways. While she was researching an old building, she spontaneously vanished - she was tossed into several alternate dimensions which seemed to resemble outer space and were filled with the Unown. Now, when Molly interacted with the Unown, the abduction was only spiritual. She remained in the same physical world, but she used the Unown to modify it to her wishes. She asked them to create a strange crystal world around her like the fairy books she'd read as a child, and they did. So her situation was quite different. They manipulated her mind-"

"No, wait."

Satoshi felt struck with sudden certainty that Shigeru was wrong. It was so obvious, he wondered how no one had noticed it while they were speaking about it before. "The Unown," he told Shigeru with certainty, "were trying to help Molly."

"Sorry, but were you listening? The Unown were manipulating her by using her memories-"

"Molly wanted to be with her family. That's why they stole my mom and created Entei. They were making her a new family because they knew that's what she wanted, right? So maybe, when the Unown abducted Professor Hale and his wife, they might have done it for a similar reason. Maybe they just sensed that the Hales wanted to know more about them," Satoshi looked to Shigeru. "Maybe the Unown were trying to help the Hales get what they wanted."

"While that's possible," Shigeru replied, "They still manipulated Molly to believe things that weren't true, and that's troubling because Molly didn't even really care about the Unown when she was five years old. Her parents didn't talk to her about their jobs or anything. So how did the Unown _get _to her in the first place? Molly confirmed that she did communicate with them before they created the incident, but we still don't know how she called out to them, or why they had appeared, or why they answered to her like they did."

"So even if we were abducted by the Unown, we don't have enough information to say anything for certain," Satoshi reasoned.

"It's all speculation," Shigeru admitted. "But I think there's enough evidence to support my theory that the Unown brought us into an elaborate illusion."

"You said that Molly called out to the Unown, right? So which of us called out to the Unown?"

"Neither of us, as far as I know," said Shigeru.

"Then," Satoshi concluded, "we can't be in an illusion. After all, the Unown would have to take out our memories or whatever to give us what we wanted. So your theory's gotta be wrong somewhere."

Shigeru allowed only the word "maybe," to slip from his lips before he straightened, and stretched his arms above his head with a drawn-out sigh.

"My fingers are more wrinkled than Tano's," he said almost idly. Satoshi felt immeasurably relieved that Shigeru was done ready to put aside the troubling topic of illusions for the moment.

"Really? Wow. I can't even see my _own_ fingers in this fog. Let's get out of here," he said. "You know, I could eat both of our dinners _right now_."

Shigeru stood and waded towards the steps leading out of the pool. "Well, maybe we'll be in luck and Haruka will have brought our food while we were gone," he suggested. Satoshi was happy to follow him while chiming in agreement.

* * *

Flat bread and millet sandwiches didn't quite reach the level of culinary prominence to which Shigeru had grown accustomed as a child. They weren't even as good as the gruel he'd been forced to eat while working on-site at the ruins as a teenager. But that horrible gruel, at least, had had the most basic of spices and sometimes (generally, on Tuesdays) the cafeteria even produced hamburgers that had come from cans and gave him the satisfaction of a protein fix even if the taste left much to be desired. Flat bread, which otherwise had the consistency of sandstone, had no redeeming qualities. Shigeru knew that. But when he arrived at Tano's after trudging through six inches of snow in sandals and socks, shivering and still hungry after skipping two meals, he was struck with the certainty that no food had ever looked more appetizing in his entire life.

Satoshi was no different. "Tano," he cried out as soon as he saw the meal, "Is this for our breakfasts?"

His outburst complete, he ran to the side of the table and with great restraint, resisted consuming the food as soon as it was in his sight. His hands were trembling over the plate and he seemed to be salivating, but this was, for him, a valiant feat of self-control. Shigeru, not seeing Tano in the immediate vicinity, forced the thought of the flat bread from his mind with effort. He then took a seat on a floor mat and tenderly began removing his ice-encrusted sandals and socks to reveal his moist and reddened toes.

Satoshi looked over at Shigeru in confusion. "What are you doing down there? Aren't you hungry?" he asked.

Shigeru rolled his eyes. "Of course I am. But my stomach can wait. Frostbite won't."

"I think you're exaggerating," Satoshi said baldly, but glanced at his footwear all the same. They were in a similar condition to Shigeru's, a possibly even worse.

Erstwhile, a shadow passed under the curtain door, grabbing Shigeru's attention. The weave pattern waved, and was lifted from the corner as Tano entered the room at a slow shuffle. His clothing hadn't changed but for the addition of a scarf, and his smile - if it were something that could be worn - was also modified, like a lamp that had been dimmed by a shade.

"Boys," he said, his voice creaky as always, "Good morning. Do eat, do eat."

Satoshi needed no further encouragement before he stuffed the first of the bread pockets into his mouth. Shigeru regarded his mentor with curiosity, however.

"This _is _for us, then?"

"Yes," said Tano, already busying himself in the corner of the room with a pile of wood that required him to bend at an angle he obviously wasn't supposed to be going in. "I've already had my breakfast."

"Oh? We usually have our breakfast before starting work, too," Shigeru mentioned, and watched Tano's face carefully. The old man seemed placid.

"Usually happens to exclude today, right?"

"...No."

"Then you really shouldn't look the gift horse in the mouth," said Tano.

"This is so good," interjected Satoshi, wiping crumbles from the crease between his chin and lower lip. "Tano, _thank you. _So much."

Tano waved his thin-as-paper hand in both pleasure and dismissal.

"Shigeru," he said. "You should make sure to eat as well."

"I will as soon as I finish warming up my toes. But don't get me wrong, I _am_ hungry. I didn't have dinner last night, _or _breakfast this morning. But I can wait a few minutes."

"Endurance is an important character attribute," Tano agreed, and placed two small pieces of wood onto the fire.

Shigeru glanced at Satoshi, who seemed to only be listening to him and Tano out of one ear, if he was paying attention at all. His eyes were on the meal, in any case.

"Out of curiosity," he said to Shigeru with an affected lightness, "Have you seen Haruka around lately?"

"No," said Tano. He leaned on his cane and licked the bottom of his thin, dry lips. "It's as if she's disappeared."

"That's the impression I got as well," Shigeru said confidingly, and frowned down at his feet.


	21. Chapter 21

**1/12/2011:** Sorry everyone! A reader tipped me off to the fact that I'd uploaded the wrong version of this chapter to f f . net. Sorry for the mistake. Please enjoy this new chapter with **a very important **extra scene at the end!

In other news - at last, we've reached the hundred-thousand word mark! I can't believe it. Thanks for everything, you guys. Let's enjoy some fan-works! Greenflower made a cute picture of Satoshi and Shigeru holding hands (post-fic, we can guess) - check out her account on deviantart. And oh my goodness, please read Azalea's fanfiction for this fanfiction, "Cut." It's so beautiful, I hereby declare it fan-canon! The links are in my profile for all you interested.

Now, without further ado...

* * *

**In Ruins**

Chapter 21

* * *

The snow continued to fall periodically for the next two days. With each fresh layer of snow, Alph transformed itself, until all signs of the summer sun were erased. The cobblestone of the streets was no longer visible except in patches across the plaza of the city center, where the treading of feet had worn down the snow into a new, and treacherous street, easily giving to ice. The flood of villagers into the market had trickled to nothing. When Satoshi discovered the vendors' earlier closing times, he had briefly worried that he and Shigeru would be forever doomed to less than three complete meals a day - a problem caused, of course, by Haruka's continued absence. He was fortunately mistaken, as Tano had taken over the task of feeding Satoshi and Shigeru in the priestess's stead. Satoshi kind of missed seeing her. As much as he liked Shigeru and Tano, it was a bit boring _only_ being around them all the time...

Especially when they were ignoring him.

"How's this?" Shigeru was asking Tano as he checked the kiln, bending over to peer into one of the grates between wood and stone. From within, pile upon pile of charcoal glowed red with radiant heat. Shigeru was radiant, too, with sweat breaking out on his forehead and over his face, his hands and wrists, whose movements were strong and certain, powered by a certain strength that belied the muscles in his arms that had been developing over the course of the past month. Half of his body faced the kiln, and was framed with light that glowed from within. It was a good thing, thought Satoshi, that the sun was hidden behind wintry white clouds, or else the brightness of the kiln and the sun would have made Shigeru nearly too bright to see. As it was, the compulsion to look away was still as strong as the desire to continue watching him.

"The coals aren't well distributed in the back corner," Tano answered Shigeru after some time. "As you can see, the heat is fine for the moment, but by noon, it will overheat."

He stood with a few more logs in the crook of his arm, his head cocked to the side and one eye clinched shut as he peered inside of the kiln. Satoshi tried to focus on Tano's response, but found he couldn't. It wasn't that interesting when he couldn't see what Shigeru was doing. Besides, his stomach was throbbing in the pit of his gut, and it was just as distracting as the cold behind him. He stepped closer to the rocky oven and leaned toward its warmth.

As he did so, Shigeru bumped him lightly with his elbow. "Hey," he said. "Watch out. This oven's really hot."

"I know, that's why I'm getting closer to it," Satoshi answered him.

"Yeah, but get any closer and you'll start sweating."

"That sounds great." Satoshi tried to angle himself around Shigeru again, but he stood in front, blocking the kiln.

"Well, it _shouldn't. _The only reason your body sweats is to bring down your body temperature. You'd be better off changing your socks if you just wanted to get warm," Shigeru finished.

"I don't have another pair of socks. Wy don't you just let me take a turn?" asked Satoshi petulantly. He turned to Tano, who was leaning all of his weight on his knotty cane. "Tano, I've been standing around watching you, and then Shigeru, do everything _all morning-"_

"That's because you spent all of breakfast complaining about how tired you were from collecting wood all yesterday-"

"- so it's only fair to let me spend some time playing with the fire, too," finished Satoshi, stubbornly.

Tano edged forward. "As a matter of fact, I was just going to ask you if you wanted to take a break, Shigeru," he said. Satoshi could use some practice stoking the coals and adjusting the temperature. He will, after all, be essential help in completing the final steps, won't he?"

Shigeru reluctantly stepped aside, and leaned the poker against the side of the kiln. "Well, in that case, you can go ahead and put more coal in if you want."

"Great," said Satoshi, and eagerly brushed past Shigeru - whom was damp with sweat, the moisture clinging straight through his clothes in places - and grasped the long shovel, already resting in a pile of cold and snow-flake covered coals. He lifted a pile of the coals upward, and held the shovel casually for a few moments before staggering backward.

A hand steadied him from behind. "Careful," said Shigeru, leaning into Satoshi just slightly.

Satoshi felt himself flushing. The heat intensified around him, and he shrugged away. "I'm fine," he defended. "It was just really hard to lift that; way harder than the other shovels that we usually use."

"Those are for dirt, not for kilns. Of course they're different. And the coals are heavy, too... Anyway, here - let me help," Shigeru offered. Satoshi didn't have a chance to respond, much less argue that he was fine, before Shigeru had moved forward and put his hands on top of his.

_He has long fingers, _Satoshi thought almost dizzily as he and Shigeru guided the shovel to the grate. _And they're really neat, even under the fingertips. That's - that's weird._

As soon as the coal-laden blade was ensconced within the walls, Satoshi let go and dropped the shaft of the metal instrument onto the kiln's shelf. The burden lifted so abruptly that Satoshi staggered for a second time, nearly bumping himself into the side of the oven in his effort to reclaim his footing. Shigeru immediately let go of Satoshi's hand, and Satoshi, only then, let out a breath he didn't know that he'd been holding onto.

"You can do the rest, Shigeru," he said, weakly. "I'll, uh, just keep watching you like before. It's no big deal."

Tano shook his head. "Come, Satoshi. Try again. You just need to be strong."

Satoshi followed the potter's gaze and looked into the grate, where the coals were hot enough to make the air wave like it were water. Resolute, he put his hands back on the shovel and pushed it all the way into the kiln. He twisted the handle and deposited the coal into the bed of flames. His duty done, he withdrew the shovel and turned to his audience. He was pretty sure that the only thing keeping him upright was his pride, but at least he'd done his job.

"How-" a heavy breath, "-was that?" he asked.

"Do you really think I'm going to be impressed by your one minute display of muscular glory?"

"That pile of coal had to way at least fifty kilograms! I'd like to see you do better!" Satoshi groused.

"Oh, no," Shigeru smirked wryly, "It's _your _turn."

Tano bent down beside the grate. "That was good," he said to Satoshi, evidently ignoring his and Shigeru's conversation entirely. "Now finish heating this kiln for firing, and describe each step as you accomplish it."

Satoshi let out a small sigh and picked up the shovel again. Oddly, now that he'd performed the task once, it seemed much easier, and he lifted it more quickly than before, in spite of lacking Shigeru's help. He surprised himself further by not only shoveling in three more loads of coal successfully, but also by managing to reserve just enough latent strength and awareness to adjust the piles inside the kiln and measure the quantity of heat afterward.

By the end, His face and his arms were drenched from sweating and he felt far colder than when he had begun - as Shigeru had rationally predicted. Satoshi was gratified that Tano had only interrupted him once to adjust the angle of his arm. He hadn't done that terribly in spite of everything.

"You've learned very well," Tano told him as they were leaving for the day. "Only after a little more and you'll have learned everything I can teach you."

"What, seriously?" asked Satoshi, rather dumbfounded.

"The rest comes from practice," said Tano, with a wrinkled smile. "Much like life."

Satoshi thought about it for a moment, and realized that his Pokemon journey had started in almost exactly the same way.

* * *

Satoshi rubbed the linen of his blanket against his head vigorously. It was helping his hair dry, but not nearly quick enough: he was covered in more goosebumps than clothes, and exposure to the cold night air was threatening to make his ears fall off. Either them, or his toes - he couldn't figure out which one would shrivel up with frostbite and fall off first, because both were equally numb. On the way back from the bath, he'd gotten his socks wet again, so they were drying by the fire. Shigeru's socks were by the fire pit, too, except they were warm and dry and still on Shigeru's feet because _he_ had avoided stepping in the puddles outside the Bath House.

"You really can't blame me just because I didn't tell you they were there." Shigeru pointed out. "Besides, I did tell you it was snowing again."

"But I could see that for myself!" Satoshi grumbled.

"Yeah, but you obviously weren't aware of what it _meant. _When people hear that it's snowing, they usually try to apply that knowledge, and instead of staring up at the sky, more careful about where they're walking in icy conditions."

"Whatever," Satoshi gave up, embarrassed, and not for the first time that day. He dropped his blanket from his head and rested it around his neck so that the corners of one side fell across his knees.

"Mom used to say I'd catch a cold if I went into the cold with wet hair," he reminisced. "So did Haruka... And Hikari, come to think of it. I guess girls were always telling me that I was going to catch a cold or something."

"Girls were always pointing out that you were acting stupidly, you mean," said Shigeru. "Don't compare me to a girl."

Satoshi held back from pointing out that Shigeru was really, really clean like a girl. And that he had clean fingers. And pretty eyelashes. Actually, he wasn't sure how that last one was related, but -

"Hey, so about dinner." Shigeru picked up a bun with a leaf of lettuce and a fish tail sticking out from it. "I just realized that Tano left us an extra sandwich. Do you wanna split it?"

"No, you can have it if you want. I'll be fine with two."

Shigeru stared. "Are you seriously refusing food?"

"These fish sandwiches aren't nearly as good as Haruka's," Satoshi defended.

Shigeru's surprise gave way to dismissal. "You don't have to sound so nostalgic." Then, he added: "It was only a few days ago."

"_Still!_ I miss Haruka's cooking. Tano makes the same thing every day and I'm sick of eating fish sandwiches. Haruka used to come here and feed us twice every day. I just don't understand why she won't do it anymore."

Shigeru stayed silent. Satoshi watched the shadows of the flames playing on his face, hoping that eventually Shigeru would share whatever was on his mind, but the moment grew too long for him to ask, and Shigeru seemed unwilling to share. Satoshi crossed the room, dumping the blanket on his bed as he crossed the room, and settled by the fire right next to Shigeru. He put out his hands and wiggled his fingers in the waving, smoky heat that spilled off of the flames.

"Shigeru, do you think that Haruka got hurt somehow?" he found himself asking.

"I don't think so," said Shigeru, his voice vague. "She seems like she can take care of herself."

"So won't she just come back?"

"Don't worry about it. Hey, do you want that sandwich?"

Satoshi felt the food being thrust into his hands before he knew what was happening. He ate it, not because the taste was tolerable but because he could fell the cold seeping into him more with every minute and was anxious to get into bed, and to sleep and not worry about all the weird things that seemed to be piling up just like the banks of snow outside their house.

Not his and Shigeru's house, really, but Haruka's house, he reminded himself, And Masato's house.

He edged closer to the fireplace.

"Do you fink," he said, mid-chew, "Do you _think _it's colder than yeshterday? I'm not shure."

Shigeru sat back and pulled a face. "I don't know. I thought that the snow was insulating the heat, a little bit. But... it's still way too cold in here."

"Then maybe we should sleep by the fire tonight," Satoshi suggested at length.

"Are you sure you won't roll into it by accident?"

"I don't roll around in my sleep!" Satoshi defended.

"Yes, you do. But it's probably better if you accidentally burnt yourself in your sleep than if you got hypothermia. Without Haruka around, I don't know any of the locals who can help take care of you if you get sick."

Kasumi and Takeshi's faces floated up in Satoshi's memory, but he quickly set them aside. "I told you, I'm not feeling sick at all."

"Better safe than sorry, though," Shigeru replied. He got up and moved their pallets close to the outside ring of the fire pit. Satoshi watched him bend down to take the covers in his hands, and drag them methodically across the room until they were lined up neatly some inches from the fire, the foot of the bedding closest to the flames. Satoshi couldn't help but notice that the linens were still arranged side-by-side as they had been before.

"Are you sure it's not better to place them in a ring around the fire?" he asked curiously. "That's how we always did it when we went camping."

"Well - body heat will last longer than the fire will, you know," said Shigeru.

The fire was doing all sorts of things to make his face glow red; to make his eyes look deep and shadowed. Satoshi felt his stomach turn and get light and get low all at once.

"I'm done with dinner," he announced, and turned away.

* * *

Shigeru had been right about one thing, and completely wrong about the other.

He'd been right that the cold wasn't intensifying, but he'd been wrong that their fire would be sufficient to keep it out. He had neglected to think of other weather phenomena, like blizzards, that could crack open on a city and consume it like the yoke of an egg. In the middle of the night, the blizzard that erupted had bursts of wind strong enough to blow aside the hanging flap of a door. The draft of freezing air that swept into the room swallowed its fire in a visceral 'whoof' that stole the heat from the room so abruptly that it startled Shigeru into consciousness.

He wasn't aware, however, what it was that had woken him - especially not when his first conscious thought was of pain. As he realized that one of his limbs was throbbing, fear broke through the level of pain, and he tried to take in his surroundings to understand what was wrong. He could hear the dim howl of wind blowing through the streets outside, and he could hear it whistling as it made its way into the room in the interims of his thoughts. It wasn't, he told himself fiercely, anything that he hadn't felt before; it was just the regular pain he had to deal with because of the accident and-

- but it wasn't his leg. It was his arm. And it was in pain, but it was _warm._

The panic subsided quickly as his consciousness took over. His leg hadn't been hurting him ever since he'd arrived in Alph, anyway, even if he _had _seen Foster and been through the accident again. In place of his leg, a different organ tugged at him and flared up in pain outside of his control.

He peeked an eye open and discovered Satoshi clutching onto him, resting with his head resting against the inside of his arm. In that moment, with Satoshi locked against him like the piece of a jig-saw puzzle, the pain in his heart was more acute than the pain in his leg had ever been.

It had to be the cold. That was what must have driven Satoshi close to him at last. Shigeru didn't dare look the gift horse in the mouth: he slid his body forward, framing Satoshi's with his own, and freeing his arm. Their chests touched, and the hand that had wrapped around his arm so fiercely had nowhere to go but to fall around his back. It wasn't a gentle, natural motion - there was the cool touch of fabric in the way, jarring the otherwise smooth motion of the arms down to where they rested at last in an embrace. But it was perfect, somehow; deeply satisfying and _warm._

Shigeru couldn't remember the last time he had had his arms around Satoshi. They must've been kids. Hugs, just in general, were nearly just as rare. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt arms around him, even for a moment- it must have been from his sister, last Christmas, when he had given her a pair of Buneary hair pins.

It had been too long.

The doorway was flapping, and between its bursts of motion he could see that the snowdrifts had gathered to two feet in height outside their door. Shigeru saw it, turned his face to Satoshi, and closed his eyes against everything else.

He held on.

* * *

The sky the next morning was a faceless gray. There were no bulges or bumps in the spread of cloud hanging above the city, and now that the snow seemed stopped for good, Alph itself seemed to mirror it below: Cold. Static. Lifeless. As Satoshi and Shigeru trampled down the snow in route to Tano's house, they didn't hear the sound of distant running water in the Trough, or the rabble of the villagers going about their morning work. It was just each other's breaths, and the crinkling sound of powdered snow as it broke apart at their feet.

The approach to Tano's house itself was a further picture of seclusion. The firmly-rooted tree in the courtyard had bowed over from the weight of the recent snowfall, like a servant resigned to serve. It was hard to imagine that only days before they had sat beneath the tree with their sleeves rolled up to their arms, laughing together. Now it took Satoshi effort to speak, much less to laugh, under the cold hand of the weather.

Satoshi hadn't noticed the cold at all while he'd been sleeping, though, and had even woken up in nothing short of a sweat, resulting from exposure to the fire pit that Shigeru had stoked into a blaze.

They both had barely been out of the Bath House for a walk of fifteen minutes, but he couldn't wait to get into their mentor's house and be enfolded in welcoming warmth again.

Unsurprisingly, then, Satoshi made it to Tano's door first, and immediately set to work on unbraiding the hemp rope of his snowshoe.

"Tano," he called out as he released his first sandal from its trappings, "We're here! And we're ready for breakfast!"

"I think Tano's aware that you're always ready for breakfast," Shigeru commented from his side.

Satoshi flashed him a grin. "Yeah, probably. But reminding him might help him to get it to us faster."

Shigeru stood, his sandals in his hands, and looked at him for a moment with an unreadable expression. Then he turned back the door flap and stepped into the room, out of Satoshi's sight.

"Tano?" he called.

Satoshi rubbed his thumbs against his fingers in circles to work the warmth back into them. He blew on them, too, just for good measure, while staring out at the courtyard in front of him. A stray wind picked up, and the top layer of snow lifted and began to dance like a wave of cold fire across the ground.

"Tano?" Shigeru's voice rang out again. "_Tano?_"

Satoshi got to his feet, dropped his sandals in the door frame and walked inside. It was just as cold inside as outside, and unusually dark. None of the window coverings had been lifted aside to let light in from the back wall. And the fire must have been out, too. He looked over at Shigeru, who was facing away from him at the table, standing still.

Satoshi didn't see Tano anywhere.

"Shigeru, what's going on? Is Tano not here or something?" he asked.

Shigeru didn't respond, so Satoshi walked across the room and peeked into the adjacent room where Tano usually kept his food and slept. It was empty and immaculate; everything in there and in the main room looked as they'd left it the day before. Satoshi looked back at Shigeru, still absorbed in thought - and, apparently, with something that he held in his hands.

There was a piece of paper in his hand that Shigeru appeared to be reading. Satoshi crept up to get a closer look, but it was of no use: the writing on the paper wasn't in Japanese at all. Instead, the paper was covered with weird hieroglyphs like the ones he'd seen on the walls in the Temple, lit up by torchlight.

"What's that?" he asked Shigeru.

Shigeru's fingers crumpled around the paper, and Satoshi could see that his hand was shaking slightly.

When he finally spoke, his words were tight and hollow.

"It's a note," he bit out. "From Tano. He's... left."

"He's _left_?" Satoshi tried to feel out the words in his mouth, but his tongue failed him. "What are you talking about?"

"Tano wrote us a note. He said... The note said that he's feeling ill, and he's going off to 'seek warmer grounds.' Or something."

Shigeru looked at Satoshi; his brows knitted, his face suspiciously un-telling. It gave him no guidance to work through his confusion. He didn't know what to think. He _couldn't._

"Tano never said anything about being sick before. So that must mean he's coming back, maybe in two days or something. Right?" Satoshi asked hopefully.

Shigeru shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Because he also said that we've learned all that we need to know," Shigeru clenched his fist, here, "And he wants us to finish firing all the pottery in the kiln."

"But," Satoshi protested, "we've barely started learning about firing or glazing."

"Tano obviously thinks we've learned enough."

"But I _haven't_. I can barely shovel coal!"

"And what makes you think I'm any better prepared than you?" Shigeru retorted, anger appearing more clearly on his features. "Didn't you see how much I was sweating yesterday?"

"Yeah, I saw. But you'll still remember everything that Tano said, and you'll do it perfectly. You always know what to do," Satoshi answered, and dropped his eyes to the ground. "So... what do we do now?"

Shigeru tossed the crumpled wad of paper onto the table, and turned his full attention to Satoshi at last.

"I don't know."

Satoshi was caught off guard. "What?"

"I said that I don't know." Shigeru stretched out the words with obvious pain, like they were an old piece of gum he'd been chewing in his mouth for hours. "I _don't know_ what to do now any more than you do. I haven't had a clue about what's been happening around us ever since we arrived in Alph."

For half a second, Satoshi believed him, just from the sheer sincerity of Shigeru's tone. But then reason struck him, belatedly, and it added to the confusion that warred inside his skull. "That's not true," he stated.

"Yes, it _is."_ Shigeru folded his arms for emphasis, but Satoshi was unimpressed.

"You've been explaining things to me since the very first day we arrived, and every single day since then-"

"Sure, I construct theories about what I _do _know, but that's it. Educated guesses that stem from the knowledge of science - the composition of soil layers, the method of discerning the age of a bone, things like that - doesn't mean that much when you're dealing with pottery, or with people, or with being thrown into a false reality."

Satoshi looked at Shigeru, and realized he had never thought about it science in that way. But he was certain that Shigeru still wasn't right. For all that Shigeru was saying, Satoshi knew that Shigeru was smart, and that whenever they talked about anything from food to favorite movies, Shigeru picked the subject apart with a rational mind. He made theories about almost everything. And when he did, he was almost always right.

Except maybe, Satoshi realized, when he made theories about himself.

"For a person who says he doesn't know anything, you seem to be doing a pretty good job to me," said Satoshi.

"Then why haven't I figured out how to get us home yet?" Shigeru replied, his voice caught between desperation and a whine. "Why haven't I figured out the legend after nearly two months?"

"Why are you making such a big deal out of this? Didn't you say that this place was an illusion built by the Protectors, designed to last as long as they wanted it to?"

Shigeru turned away from him and began to pace. "I know I said that we'd have all the time in the world, but what if I was wrong? What if it's only designed to last as long as tomorrow morning? Didn't you notice - in this past week especially - that everything has felt like it's been accelerating around us? That things are changing, faster and faster, and all sorts of events are just whirling together and splitting off into a million pieces?"

Satoshi _did_ look around himself. Tano's work-room seemed clean and neat as it was on most mornings that they arrived. Snow was piled up outside the door, and while there was a definite abundance of crusty ice on the edge of the doorframe, as far as Satoshi could tell, Alph was hardly speeding up. If anything, the life of the city had slowed down to a perfect snow-globe stillness.

"No," he admitted. "I haven't noticed anything like that."

"Then it's probably nothing," said Shigeru immediately. "It's probably nothing."

"Really? But you just said-"

"Maybe we should just do what Tano suggested," Shigeru interrupted, his voice obviously strained. "You could check the fire in the kiln and start getting things ready. I'll try to find something for breakfast."

"Oh. Okay."

Satoshi paused, feeling as if he was missing something. It was obvious that Shigeru was upset, but he had no idea what to do. The back of Shigeru's head betrayed nothing of what he was thinking; the ends of his auburn hair, the shells of his ears, the strong lines of his shoulders beneath his shirt were all in a conspiracy to keep him as frustratingly illegible to Satoshi as the crumpled letter on the table. Giving up, Satoshi walked to the door and prepared to go start working in silence, but right as he passed the doorframe he was struck with a sudden impulse to say one last thing.

"Hey, Shigeru?" he raised his voice slightly to reach across the room. "I'm sorry about Tano."

For a moment, Shigeru didn't respond. And he still didn't turn around. But when he answered, Satoshi finally understood the reason why.

"Yeah," said Shigeru, swallowing. And then, more thickly: "_Thanks._"


	22. Chapter 22

Oh, everyone! Your reviews are fantastic. Theories, too. I'll try to keep you from being too much on your toes - and I'll try to update faster than usual, from here on out! We're almost there!

* * *

**In Ruins**

Chapter 22

* * *

It took the entire morning for Satoshi to finish heating the kiln. By the time that Shigeru joined him, shoveling black coals into another, further grate in a grave and heavy silence, Satoshi felt himself becoming more or less adjusted to the idea that Tano had left. It was just a fact: Tano was gone because he had somewhere else to be, and Satoshi understood that. He knew what it was like to have to leave. He'd spent five years of his life leaving, and never being the person left behind.

Shigeru, however, did not seem to understand this. He was taking it badly. When he talked, it was just muttered theories that he didn't seem willing to discuss, though Satoshi still tried to turn the conversation. "_What's_ strange?" Satoshi had ventured once. Another time he had tried with, "Did you just say something?". However, Shigeru barely seemed aware he had even spoken most of the time. He responded with grunting and prodding at some coals with his poker, or sneezing in the wake of a flurry of ashes. "No," he would say. Or, "It was nothing." But then a few minutes later, he would pick up his one-sided conversation again, his mind running so fast that it couldn't keep up with his mouth; at least, that's how it seemed. When other sounds of their work didn't overwhelm the quiet utterances, Satoshi picked up bits and pieces, like "he can't leave-" and "- the island is shut off-" and "- there's nowhere warm!" but Satoshi had no idea how to piece those thoughts together.

He tried not to think too hard about it. After all, if Shigeru couldn't figure his problem out, Satoshi figured that he didn't have a chance of understanding anything, so why bother? The morning's work kept him busy, and it took at least half of his concentrated energy to focus on the flames while he alternated rubbing his nose and fingers and ears in order to restore enough circulation in those appendages to keep them from freezing and falling off altogether.

The residual shock of Tano's departure followed into lunch. Shigeru ate quickly, and barely had anything to say. He went to the bathroom as soon as he'd had the last bite, leaving Satoshi with the kiln. It seemed that their work had finally paid off: the brilliant glow of the inner chambers forced Satoshi to look at it from the edge of his eyes, his view absconded by the dull stripes of his eyelashes. It was good news that the flames had risen so high, and he let out a whoop of excitement.

A grin stretched across his face, he bounded around the house and slid to a halt beneath the door frame with the ice-covered toes of his sandals. They just barely brushed over the boundary between the inside and outside flooring. Shigeru wasn't in sight so Satoshi cupped his mouth and shouted to him.

"Hey!" he called out into the room. "I think the kiln's hot enough!"

Shigeru's reply seemed to come from the wall.

"What are you telling me for?" it said. Satoshi turned his head towards the sound that seemed to be coming from directly behind the rug that led to the bathroom. _Had Shigeru been in there since lunch? _Satoshi wondered.

"I thought you wanted to know that we could get started," he offered.

"Oh. Yeah, I did. Thanks." Shigeru's voice was muffled, and yet the distraction in voice was startlingly distinct. "You could put some pieces in now, if you want."

"Or I could just wait for you. It's not like you won't be out of there in a minute."

"It's also no reason for me to hold you up."

"...Okay," Satoshi said uncertainly. "If you're sure." He had wanted to say that he wouldn't _mind _being held up - after all, it would be more fun if they could put in the dishes together - but it was kind of a stupid thing to want and he just barely caught the words before they came off of his lips and Shigeru mocked him for it. Satoshi screwed up his face, trying desperately to think of something that he could say which didn't sound really ridiculous, but still said what he wanted.

Eventually, he decided on, "I'll save some for you to put in."

Shigeru didn't reply. Satoshi walked back to the kiln with footsteps that were dragging more heavily than the snow necessitated.

The first batch of pottery that had to be placed into the kiln was arranged in two tight rows on a long, flat plank of balsa wood. There were ten pieces, all from his and Shigeru's first experience of attempting to create pottery from start to finish. He could easily see the differences between his work and Shigeru's. Satoshi knew he was probably too sloppy to be a decent artist, and his patterns - especially the earliest ones - were too big in some places and too little in others. Shigeru's strokes were evenly bold; straight where they were supposed to be, swirling or twisting otherwise on a perfectly flat, smooth-clay surface.

Satoshi carefully placed the oven paddle at the edge of the grate. Once it seemed lodged deeply enough in, he began to make the transfer of the bowls from the balsamic wood block to the paddle. He picked them up one at a time, ignoring his own in favor of Shigeru's. As he picked them up, and felt the smooth grain against the pads of his fingers, he thought of the way Shigeru's hands held the pieces so delicately when he carved his decorations into the sides with rope brushes and little twigs. Shigeru would sometimes place it on the top of his knee as he bent over in the grass, bending over to bring the pottery level with his eye. He would work so intently, watching with the whole of his focus; his hand moving without shaking even at the smallest movement. And he would probably smile, too, just a little as he finished.

With an echoing smile on his own face, Satoshi reached for the last piece on the block, and looked at it in surprise when he realized which one he'd grabbed. It was the plate they had decorated together.

It was covered with writing and doodles, etched into every bit of space that the surface had allowed. Honestly, it wasn't something that Tano could sell, so Satoshi wasn't sure why Tano had kept it and had even prepared it for the kiln. But he was glad that Tano had, because he _liked _this plate. A lot. He turned it around in his hands, reading over the lines, and letting the words slowly warm him in a way that Shigeru's words hadn't done all morning.

The earthquake started so abruptly that Satoshi had no time to prepare.

He was standing with the plate, and then, the world lurched a meter to the left, taking Satoshi with it; he was thrown against the side of the kiln, the air shot out from his lungs like squeezed balloons before he had the chance to gasp. His hands were at his head on a reflex he wasn't sure why he was making, because everything was black for a moment and then he realized, with a start, _I think I just hit my head, _and then he opened his eyes, and saw the pale, white earth dancing in front of him. Black dots in the air all around him. The world struck by a trembling fit. And the plate was in the air somewhere; No, it was in front of him. Now, falling - _The plate! _he thought, desperately, wondering even underneath that thought, why was he so desperate? Because he'd shaped the pottery out of the very ground? or because he made it with Shigeru? - but he reached out too late, and he heard over the sound of the growling ground, which rumbled like an upset stomach, the smashing sound of clay. It was on the ground, it was on pieces on the ground, all around him, in puddles and snow and mud.

_No, _he thought desperately, and then he heard himself saying it, "_No!"_

The earthquake stopped immediately, and the world returned to its proper place as if cowed by the lash of a whip. The last of Satoshi's strength left him, and he slid to the ground, not caring that the seat of his tunic was being doused with ice and mud and the seat of his trousers was soaking through. His head was throbbing. He felt one of the pieces of the broken plate at his hand, and he scrabbled to grasp it.

He remembered.

Because last time wasn't that different, really. An earthquake had brought him here. And he'd been in the desert, somewhere around here, but somewhere else, opening an envelope and dumping pieces across the ground, idly watching how they fell in patterns as random as the sand at his feet. He'd been crying, then, too. Hurting. Wondering why he'd even left his room, thinking about how he was lonely, and thinking about Shigeru, who he-

"Satoshi!" yelled a voice nearby.

- who he had wanted to see so badly.

Satoshi turned towards the sound of Shigeru's voice, breaking out of the memory and the haze.

Shigeru was standing a few feet from him. He was blurred for some reason; barely more than a pair of wide eyes and bright auburn hair on a body braced against the door frame. Relief rushed through him, and Satoshi let out a breath he hadn't remembered he'd been holding. And then suddenly the vision was moving, and Shigeru was at Satoshi's side, grabbing him by the hands and now he felt Shigeru was bracing against him, or perhaps it was himself bracing against Shigeru, in the wake of some enemy that could only be faced but not defeated.

"Are you all right?" Shigeru's voice seemed to float on the crest of a wave that crashed against Satoshi like he was a rock jutting out in the middle of the sea. He closed his eyes, and let the wave break against him, scattering water everywhere; and then he was swimming. He was swimming in the comfort of Shigeru's voice.

"I hit my head," he heard himself saying.

"Put your hands down so I can see it. _Satoshi-_"

Shigeru's voice softened into nothing and the wave swept back to the sea, leaving the world sharp and distinct. Cold, yet warm. All the heat in his body seemed to be concentrated in blazing, fiery trails where Shigeru's fingers ran through his hair, barely brushing against his scalp. He bit the bottom of his lip to keep down the shiver that threatened to rise from each vertebrae of his spine.

"You'll probably get a big knot, but you aren't bleeding, as far as I can see." Shigeru withdrew his hand, and Satoshi forced his eyes to open up again, and he watched Shigeru bring his fingers to his face and absently begin rubbing his chin as he considered Satoshi from very close.

So close, really. Satoshi's heart pounded in his chest.

"Shigeru. The plate, it-"

He gestured to their creation, scattered in pieces all across the ground, broken up in shards as sharp and jagged as a Pikachu's tail.

"-broke," he said.

"That's all? Could've been worse," said Shigeru immediately. He rose from his squat, and then bent to offer Satoshi his hand. "Come on, let's check to make sure nothing else was damaged from the quake. We can then finish our job."

"I'm still kind of dizzy," said Satoshi, but he let himself be pulled up. His eyes immediately sought out the place where he had left the paddle lodged inside the grate. With the singular exception of the bowl that Satoshi had made with Shigeru, all nine of the remaining bowls and plates sat innocently on the paddle, ready for firing in the kiln. Not a single one had been pushed onto its side, or cracked, or made victim of ashy refuse that the oven had exhumed.

"That's strange," Shigeru commented, voice low. "It doesn't seem like anything happened to them, does it?" Satoshi nodded, and leaned his weight forward onto his feet. Shigeru let go of his arm.

His knees buckled and he began to fall.

"Satoshi, what the hell-" Shigeru caught him with effort. "What did you do to yourself?"

Satoshi rubbed his face against Shigeru's arm without meaning to. It smelled good, he thought. It felt good. He looked up at Shigeru, into his eyes. He felt lightheaded, yet he didn't care. But that was hardly normal.

"I think I need to lay down," he said, breathless.

"Yeah." Shigeru replied. He seemed to be suffering from the same tightness of the lungs as Satoshi, because his words came out both husky and slow. "Yeah. That's - probably a good idea."

* * *

Shigeru had laid Satoshi down with a cold compress on his head as soon as he could. Satoshi hadn't tried resisting, and his body still seemed to be in shock. That would explain his inability to stand; his racing heartbeat as Shigeru carried him to Tano's living room. Feeling - seeing, even - the hot puffs of Satoshi's breath against his face was putting ideas in his head that Shigeru couldn't let himself think about.

"That earthquake came so suddenly," Satoshi tried to explain as he got comfortable on the floor. "And it was so strong, but nothing in this room seems broken. Isn't that weird?"

"Not really. It wasn't _that _strong," said Shigeru. He sat down next to Satoshi and the fire pit. "Your perception is all skewed because you hit your head; that's all. There was only a bit of rumbling, really."

"You sounded really worried for just a bit of rumbling."

Shigeru had been worried, but it was an unreasonable worry that had been exacerbated by a morning of fretting about the future. "Was not," he bluffed. "I heard you shout and knew something was wrong, that's all."

"Oh." Satoshi appeared to consider this new information. "Well, you were acting strange earlier," he reasoned.

"Not as strange as you're acting now. Actually…" Shigeru brought himself down to Satoshi's level. "Hold on, I'm going to do a test. Follow the movement of my finger with your eyes, okay?"

Shigeru held his index finger in front of Satoshi's eyes, a few inches away from his nose. Slowly, he began to move his hand, and the finger across Satoshi's range of sight. Satoshi's brown eyes were half-focused as they trailed the movement, like sluggish mud.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Checking you for a concussion," Shigeru answered. "And it seems like you might have a minor one. You should probably rest."

"Yeah. I feel really dizzy," admitted Satoshi. "What are you going to do?"

"I'll finish loading the kiln, probably. Check on the temperature and make sure there's plenty of fuel to last us for a while. And then… I'll probably wake you up, so we can go back to get our things from Haruka's and move them here."

"What?" Satoshi looked confused. "Why would we do that?"

"Because it's… it just seems strange staying at Haruka's house. We haven't seen her, or her brother, for a long time now. There's no reason to be moving back and forth from house to house in this cold weather when we don't have to, especially at this stage in the firing process."

"But why should we stay here and fire the pots at all? I mean, if Tano's not here, I don't see the point…"

Shigeru couldn't ignore the churning feeling in his stomach. He'd been thinking all morning about Tano leaving, but he'd been so busy trying to understand why and how Tano had left that he had completely forgotten to think about where to go from there. And he hadn't been thinking about practical things; like about how they were supposed to live in the moment. No wonder he'd barely been able to keep down his lunch. He was stressing himself out in the most useless way possible.

"We need to see the Chief again," Shigeru decided. "He'll figure out arrangements for us, just like last time."

"Do you know where he lives?" asked Satoshi. "Or how to find him?"

"No," Shigeru replied, and he thought for a moment. "But maybe your friends do."

Satoshi looked confused for a while before finally answering. "You mean Takeshi and Kasumi?"

"Unless there are others that I don't know about, then yes," said Shigeru, in a snider tone than he'd intended. Satoshi ignored it, and said slowly, "I thought you didn't like them."

Shigeru tried to keep his tone more regulated this time; to try and not sound jealous of Satoshi having other people he saw as friends. "Honestly, Satoshi, I don't know Takeshi or Kasumi personally, so I couldn't tell you whether I liked them or not. But it doesn't even matter. They're the only people we know that are left."

The words sent shivers down his spine even as he said them. He stood up and looked down at Satoshi, pale and small on the pallet, and _still_ so attractive. He ignored the tug at his stomach that threatened to pull him to Satoshi's side. There were too many other things to think about. There was Satoshi's head wound, for one thing. And Tano's absence, on top of Haruka's and Masato's. And the legend.

"You should rest," he said, and turned around, nearly missing Satoshi's mumbled assent as he walked away, immersing himself in thought once more.

It wasn't surprising that by the time he came back, the kiln loaded and the fires blazing high, Satoshi was fast asleep.

* * *

"How long was I out?" Satoshi asked him as they turned the street, leaving Tano's courtyard and its snow-bent tree behind them.

"A few hours at most," Shigeru answered. He looked up at the sky, searching for the sun, and found it glowing dully in an overcast carpet of high, murky cloud. "Looks like we have a little time left before sunset. Just enough to get our things and bring them back with us to Tano's."

Satoshi rubbed his hands together vigorously. "Okay," he said, distracted.

Shigeru moved his gaze up to Satoshi's face, and he observed it closely. "Are you?"

Satoshi turned away his face, almost as if he were hiding a blush. "Mostly," he said. "My head barely even hurts anymore. I was just thinking."

"I'm sure," said Shigeru, skeptically.

"Seriously," Satoshi insisted, "I was thinking about how we could save time and get back to the kiln faster."

"We're not in a rush," Shigeru pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's cold, this far away from the fire. And we don't have that much stuff at Haruka's, anyway… Just clothes. You could probably carry everything by yourself in a single trip."

Shigeru felt an uncomfortable wave of premonition hearing the words 'by yourself.' "What are you proposing?"

"To go off and visit Kasumi and Takeshi on my own, that's all." Satoshi's tone was light, as if that alone would lend credit to his case. "I can ask them about the Chief and maybe get some dinner, then meet you back at Tano's."

"Oh," said Shigeru. "That makes sense."

And it did, but Shigeru didn't have to like it.

When the road split ahead of them a few minutes later, Satoshi waved a cheerful goodbye and turned in the opposite direction from Haruka's house. Shigeru had never actually seen where Kasumi and Takeshi lived, so for all he knew their house was just around the corner; at the very least, he knew it was located somewhere directly along the Trough and near the edge of the city. Resigned, he watched Satoshi take a few steps in the fresh, untrodden snow. He turned around, still staring at the ground, and followed his and Satoshi's footprints from that morning all the way back to Haruka's.

He didn't lift up his eyes until he reached the front of Haruka's house nearly ten minutes later. Even then, it took him a moment before he could break out of his musings enough to recognize something out of place: the windows weren't darkened like they should've been. Instead, he could see a light glowing from the center of the room. He could hear the crackling of a fire, even, when he listened for it. There was obviously someone inside the room.

Shigeru racked his brain. It couldn't be Satoshi. There was just no way that he could have come back already, especially after going in the opposite direction.

Shigeru fought back his trepidation, systematically unlacing his snowshoes but kicking them off with a bit of abandon, letting them land in the snow. He lifted up the edge of the door hanging, and stepped inside.

Masato sat in front of the fire pit, where a small fire had been stoked up into a blaze. He was wrapped up in so many scarves and layers that the dark green of his hair stood out prominently, looking almost like a deep brown in the red glow of the flames. Shigeru felt the muscles in his leg coil up and tense, like he was getting ready to run, when it was all he could do to stay standing as he was overpowered by questions: What was Masato doing here, after being gone for days with no word, and with no explanation? Why had he left in the first place? Why had he and Satoshi been deprived of food?

And most importantly, what was going on?

"Masato," he said, in wary greeting.

Masato sharply nodded his chin in assent. "Shigeru," he said, in the single word conveying everything that irked Shigeru about the haughty, bratty, thirteen year old boy.

But at least wasn't any more hostile than usual, so Shigeru took the greeting as an invitation to walk inside. He wondered if he'd ever felt less welcome in his entire life than he did now, entering what he'd come to think of as practically his own room, slowly, afraid to startle Masato as if he were a wild Stantler that was poised to leap away at the smallest movement.

He tried to process his shock with as much rationality as he could muster. All things considering, he knew that it shouldn't be a surprise to see the boy here - it was his and Haruka's house, after all. But Shigeru had become fairly resigned to the idea that he wouldn't be seeing Masato anymore, ever. And he certainly hadn't expected that he would have to face Masato alone.

Fighting back his shock, he offered a weak conversational opening. "Haven't seen you around for a while," he managed.

Masato shrugged noncommittally, but that was enough. Shigeru entered the room and sat down across from him, easily two meters away, but still close enough to the fire that he could benefit from its heat. He stuck out his hands, and took great relief from the nearly-painful tingling sensation of warmth being restored to his fingers. Masato put down his poker and folded his arms.

"We need to talk," he said, looking directly into Shigeru's eyes. "It's time."

"Time for what?" Shigeru asked. He withdrew his hands, possibilities rushing through his head as he tried to decipher Masato's cryptic words. _Time for what?_ His mind raced through his theories, scattered memories and thoughts in a flash. There was the cold, the disappearances, there was a memory of him and Satoshi putting pottery into a kiln, the sense of something being 'wrong,' his trip to the Temple -

"Isn't it obvious?" said Masato, exasperated. "It's time for you to explain the way you behaved toward my sister."

Shigeru felt all of the unnamed fears lift at precisely the same time as his stomach dropped down from his throat. The strong sensation of vertigo threatened to make him swoon - and he was _sitting._

"You're joking," he said, choked.

"Why would I be joking?" Masato snapped. "You broke my sister's heart."

Shigeru wasn't prepared for this conversation, but he couldn't see any way of avoiding it either.

"I had no choice, Masato," he said honestly. "I didn't - and I don't - love her back. You wouldn't prefer that I lied to her, would you?"

"You _did so _lie to her; just not directly."

Shigeru huffed. "Even if you were right, which you aren't, how could you even claim to know that?"

"Because I _am _right, and I was there often enough. Every time you interacted with my sister, I could tell that you were conscious of her feelings, but you weren't even willing to let her down easy. You just acted like everything was normal. You led her on!"

"Are you serious? There's no way you could tell that I knew anything if I was acting normal!"

"I'm a good judge of character," said Masato.

"You're still pre-pubescent! You're hardly old enough to know anything about people's characters, much less how to make good decisions or be responsible and-" Shigeru paused. The gears clicked in his head, and started to turn, and by that same movement of inspiration his forehead wrinkled and his brow dropped down. "Don't tell me," he said, in a voice filled with more threat than speculation, "that this whole time, when you and Haruka had apparently disappeared, that you hadn't gone anywhere. That in fact you were just keeping food away from us out of petty vindictiveness. Weren't you?"

Masato's dropped his chin, and his hair fell across his face, hiding his eyes. "Well," he said.

"Well?"

"Well, _Haruka _has been preparing your meals as usual. Though for obvious reasons, she's felt uncomfortable with making any deliveries. She asked me to bring the food to you." Masato shrugged, apparently indifferent, as he added, "…Though I might have forgotten once or twice."

"It's been over a week,"Shigeru exclaimed. "You self-centered punk, I should throttle you! We could've starved!"

Masato sniffed. "You deserved not to eat for what you did to Haruka!"

"Satoshi didn't! And besides, that's just sadistic! What's _wrong _with you?"

"Excuse me if _I _was more concerned about Haruka and her emotional trauma than with your happiness or whatever minor feelings you may have had-"

Shigeru interjected, "Hunger is not a minor feeling!"

"- But if you had a sister, you'd know that she was a bigger priority!"

"Are you stupid?" Shigeru shouted. "I have an older sister, too!"

"Then you'd want her to be happy more than anything, wouldn't you?" Masato curled his fingers into fists, matching Shigeru. "And I knew you wouldn't make her happy, from the very start. I'm not stupid. I knew that you would never love Haruka, but she wouldn't be persuaded. And then you _flirted _with her-"

"I don't - I _didn't _flirt! And besides, how would you have known that I couldn't make her happy? Maybe I _could've_ loved her; what gives you the right to judge?"

"Because," Masato said matter-of-factly, "I saw the way you looked at Satoshi. I knew that he was the only one you cared about."

Shigeru's mouth went dry.

"He's my best friend," Shigeru said in a voice more low than he'd meant to. "That's all."

Masato just rolled his eyes. "Of course he is. And it's normal for people to only be interested in their best friend at the exclusion of everything and everyone else."

"But if you _knew_ I wasn't interested," Shigeru shifted the topic, "Why didn't you say anything to Haruka? If you cared so much as you claim."

"I did say something; nearly every time she brought up your stupid name, I_ tried _to reason with her, but it didn't do any good. She knew that you had to love someone, and kept quoting that stupid legend until she nearly drove me crazy with it -"

"The legend?" Shigeru asked sharply. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Masato cringed, but only for a moment. "Nothing," he covered. "I can't tell you anything about the legend."

"Yes, you can. You just did." Shigeru's heart raced in his chest, and he scrambled to remember exactly what Masato had said. _You had to love someone? _Was that it?"You already told me, I heard you."

"Then unhear it."

"No," said two voices simultaneously, and only one of them was Shigeru's. The other had come from behind him.

Shigeru turned around, and stared at the door frame where Haruka stood tall. She was stricken by shadows and the top of her shoulders were lightly dusted with snow.

"You know, eavesdropping is _not _the sign of a good host," Shigeru said, fighting back his shock.

Haruka ignored him, and closed the flap behind her. She addressed Masato, looking past Shigeru with targeted intensity: "Things have changed, Masato. I've just come back from the Temple, and the Protectors have spoken. We're almost out of time."

"There is no way that both of you said you were out of time as a coincidence," Shigeru interjected, but was ignored.

"I'll tell the Chief," Masato said to Haruka. He got up, and apparently weighed down by his scarves, he nearly stumbled over himself, all gangly limbs. Haruka shook her head.

"No, Masato. Wehave to go together."

"I'm telling you, neither of you are going anywhere without telling me what you're talking about first," Shigeru demanded. This time he stood up, forcing the siblings to look at him. "If something's about to happen, and it involves me and Satoshi, I need to know."

"But we have to go now," Masato whined.

"I know," said Haruka, her voice firm but almost chillingly serene.

Haruka took over the spot by the fire where Masato had been sitting, settling herself on the floor cushion with all the elegance her brother had lacked. Shigeru shared a quick look with her, barely catching her eye before being overwhelmed with discomfort, and wondering how she could even stand to look at him; especially if the 'emotional trauma' had been as bad as Masato had said. Then his eyes passed on to Masato.

"Well, get on with it," said Masato, almost sounding bored. "Ask what you want to ask and let us go. We can't be here all day."

"You know what?" Shigeru suggested, "If you're in such a hurry, I don't see why you don't just run ahead of us and let Haruka meet you there."

"I suppose I can agree to that," Haruka put in, obviously changing her stance on the issue. "I'll join you shortly, Masato."

Masato appeared uncertain, but ultimately gave in to his sister's unwavering gaze. "All right," he submitted.

"But first, you'd better _apologize," _she commanded, "Or else _you _won't have food for a week, either. And that'll just be the start."

Masato turned to Shigeru, obviously backed into a corner. He swallowed, and then spoke with grudging disgust, as if the words actually caused him pain: "I'm sorry. And good luck."

Shigeru nodded, though he was uncertain of what he needed luck for. Masato returned his gesture the slightest bow of his head. Then, with the exchange completed, Masato spun on his heel and left Shigeru and Haruka to themselves.

The room was silent but for the distant sound of Masato stepping out into the snow, and breaking into a run. Shigeru shifted himself so he faced Haruka front on. She looked tired, but otherwise like herself. Mostly composed, but with a few hairs free from her clasps, making her human somehow beneath the formality. Shigeru could feel his questions storming up his throat, from the end of his tongue to the tip, and let out an uneasy breath, preparing for the long haul and whatever it might bring.

"So," he began slowly. "The legend."


	23. Chapter 23

Mild het warning, but it's quickly followed by mild slash. Greenflower deserves yet another bouquet for her great beta work in this chapter. Hope you guys enjoy it.

* * *

**In Ruins**  
Chapter 23

* * *

By the time that Satoshi arrived at the front of Takeshi and Kasumi's home, he could tell that the crusty layer of snow and slush built up over his sandals and snowshoes had solidified into a flaky, icy mass. He couldn't feel the ice on his toes, but he couldn't feel his toes, either. That was probably an early sign of the frostbite in itself.

The light coming from inside the house, therefore, drew him like a beacon. He trudged forward through the pristine lay of not yet indented snow, dodging the deeper banks adeptly - it was a skill surprisingly easy to acquire when the consequence was to have wet clothes for the rest of the day - and made his way to the door.

Satoshi had never had to ask permission to come into anyone's house since arriving at Alph, and suddenly he was faced with etiquette that he had never really learned in the first place. He knocked on the icy doorframe three times in quick succession, and hoped that it would be enough to get Kasumi and Takeshi's attention.

He stepped back on the door step, blowing hot air onto his now reddened knuckles as he waited.

When no one came, Satoshi furrowed his brow in confusion. Around the door hanging, light - and with it, warmth - escaped from edges into the gray and empty afternoon. Kasumi or Takeshi, or both of them even, _had _to be inside, but they weren't answering.

Maybe, he speculated, people in Alph didn't knock on doors?

"Hello?" he called out. "Is anyone home? It's me, Satoshi!"

Some time passed, but the curtain over the door remained unmoved.

Satoshi looked up at the sky. It was late afternoon, and the sun would be setting soon, and he had to admit that he didn't know what to do.

About almost everything.

It had been an unwelcome realization only a few hours earlier, while he'd been laying on the mat by the fire. He'd woken up confused from the concussion, with memory-captures of the morning floating across his mind like the fragments of clouds, changing shape and intangible but heavy with mass. Of them, only a few were very clear: first, that he'd broken the piece of pottery that he and Shigeru had made together. Second, that the earthquake had happened while he was holding the plate too closely. And third, he remembered the sudden recognition that it had been all too similar to that time when he'd been back at the Site on the edge of the desert, in what used to be his world, holding an envelope filled with symbol pieces. Then, and this morning, both times he'd felt something tugging deep inside of him - and an earthquake had thrown him off of center.

It wasn't enough to be a pattern, not really. But Satoshi had a gut feeling, and his stomach was probably the only thing that had never failed him.

Laying on that mat, Satoshi had been plagued with questions he'd been avoiding. What if, that time when they'd been talking in the Bathhouse, Shigeru had been right? What if the world was under their control? What if it was under _his_ control? Did that mean it was really an illusion? And if it was, how was Satoshi supposed to get himself and Shigeru free?

This time he pounded his fist hard enough to break off some of the ice from the door.

"Kasumi, Takeshi, hello," he tried, desperation creeping into his voice as he called out again. "Hello-o-o!"

They _had _to come to the door. He needed to be told that he was wrong about his doubting, more than anything. When he had told Foster to go away - and it had worked - and the time he had yelled because of the earthquake - and it had stopped - it _needed_ to be a coincidence. And it probably had been. After all, if things stopped because of him, then how did he know that things weren't _starting _because of him, too?

What if it was like Shigeru had suggested, so long ago, that maybe it was his fault that they were in Alph in the first place?

But the thought still seemed impossible. After all, it wouldn't explain why things were happening that he didn't like to have happening: that snow had been falling for a week, that Tano had vanished, that they hadn't been getting fed. The last one was especially true because Satoshi would _really _like to have warm, lavish meals three times a day again.

The thought of food struck Satoshi with a related one: what if Kasumi and Takeshi were in the middle of a meal? After all, he could relate to being too busy eating to bother with anything else. He and Shigeru had gotten lost in conversation at Tano's more times than he could count.

Satoshi walked around the outer wall to the little window. The fire's glow was brighter, and closer, too. As Satoshi reached for the curtain, he could see his arm being steadily enveloped by yellow light. He took the fabric in his hand, and grasping the heavy weave, he pulled it back and leaned into the open space it had left. He opened his mouth, the words ready in his throat - but when his eyes blinked back the light, and he saw the interior of the house, his announcement was choked back by a force stronger than his will.

Kasumi and Takeshi were there, just as he had guessed. They sat facing each other closely, their heads bent together low. It seemed as if they were speaking in quiet voices, but they weren't; Takeshi's mouth was moving, his lips biting at the air as if mimicking words - but only in-between pressing kisses against Kasumi's face. Her mouth was open, but only in the shape of a soundless little 'o'.

Satoshi's face was the same.

He struggled to think, to breathe, to do something as he watched one of Kasumi's hands lifting up and being taken in Takeshi's, but he was frozen as Kasumi's other hand snaked its way around her husband's neck, drawing him even closer to herself. Only as Takeshi bent Kasumi slowly backward onto the mat, arching over her gigantic stomach, kissing her, could Satoshi finally break away, dropping the curtain back into place and spinning around. He was overwhelmed with the sudden difference, staring out toward the streets and buildings of a snowy city, free of people whose bodies were too close together, drenched in the light cast by fires. He could hear his breath coming out unevenly, and he could see its shallow puffs against the sky. He felt as if he had run a mile, but he had only been staring in a window.

In the window which, he remembered, was still right next to it, and if he were to look again, he knew that he would see that Kasumi and Takeshi were still together, still doing all those things, still -

Satoshi sunk his head into his hands. He felt inexplicably raw and tense, and it was horrible. He didn't even want to _think _about what Kasumi and Takeshi had been doing; what they were probably _still_ doing. It was bad enough that he had caught his friends in the middle of kissing like that, but even worse because he hated thinking about kissing anyone, or doing anything with anyone. Every time he'd ever kissed, it had just been boring, or bad.

Except that one time.

And even then, he reflected dismally, it had only been horrible as long as he had been thinkingof Hikari. Maybe that was the problem, though? Maybe it wasn't so bad because he'd thought of someone else?

But he'd thought of Shigeru, and surely that wasn't the reason because - Because being with Shigeru, that would be -

Panicked, Satoshi tried to stop himself, and to push the thought out of his mind, but it was too late. It had already rooted and all he could do was let the image wash over him. He was on his back, looking up at Shigeru, at the sloping tufts of his auburn hair as they laid against his neck, and the old yin-yang necklace of his, first dangling mid-air and then laying down on its side against the flat plane of Satoshi's chest. Shigeru had the faintest hint of a smirk as he looked at Satoshi, his eyes searing like they held the fires of a kiln, as he, too, slowly lowered down on top of Satoshi, hands working their way up Satoshi's shirt, the fabric giving way to skin, his head bending down and -

Satoshi was running.

He didn't even know that he'd backed away until he felt the snow flying up around his feet and saw the buildings blurring past, and he wasn't even cold because he felt as if his entire body had been dipped into a fire. All he knew is that he had to get away, and it didn't matter where he was going as long as he was going, and he didn't care as long as he didn't have to think; he_ couldn't _think, because obviously his concussion had been worse than he'd thought, to make him think such crazy things, to have - to have hallucinations. Maybe, maybe that was it; the entire day had been a hallucination, from the moment he'd hit his head on the kiln.

Satoshi clung to the thought desperately, letting it guide him as he ran.

Maybe he hadn't stopped the earthquake, he'd just thought that he had? Maybe it was all just a big mistake, and as soon as he got back to Haruka's, he would find Shigeru waiting for him. And Shigeru would immediately know what was wrong, and make him sleep on the mat and he would wake up in the morning with nothing being wrong anymore. He wouldn't want Shigeru to be touching him, or kissing him, and he wouldn't be worried that the Unown were listening to him, and that he was the one who had brought them to Alph because he'd wanted it. He wouldn't, because everything would be the same, and safe, and he and Shigeru could keep on living in Alph as long as they wanted - he just had to get back to Shigeru.

He just had to get back, and everything would be okay.

It just had to.

* * *

Haruka met Shigeru's eyes, her expression placid. From the graceful way her feet overlapped to the gentle clasp of her hands in her lap, she was a picture of unruffled calm. It was a complete contradiction to what Shigeru had been expecting, given the statement he'd just left her with.

"What do you want to know about the legend?" she asked him evenly.

Shigeru's reply was instantaneous.

"Everything," he told her. Leaning forward, he elaborated, "I want you to tell me what the legend is, and I want to know how Satoshi and I can get home."

Haruka combed back some of her hair behind her ear. "I understand," she said, her face almost apologetic as she continued. "But I can't tell you what the legend is."

"You can't," Shigeru repeated dully.

Haruka shook her head. "No."

Shigeru felt his hands turning to fists at his side, but he refused to give in to the tension that had built up for what now seemed to have been days, even weeks - and yell. Instead, he took in a deep, steadying breath and looked away, to the far wall with its inoffensive and imperturbable blankness.

"Haruka," he said, the words coming out slowly, "You just told me in front of Masato that you would explain what was going on. Why did you even come if you weren't going to explain yourself?"

In the corner of his eye, he could see Haruka's arms reaching out on the ground in front of herself as if they were trying to find their place. They settled on the basic tea set.

"Originally, I came here looking for Masato," she answered. " I wasn't sure that I would find either you or Satoshi here."

"That doesn't answer my question," said Shigeru, barely able to contain himself as she began to heat a pan filled with herbs and water over the open flame. As if making tea was the most important thing she should be doing, instead of revealing her secrets. "Can't you just get to the point?"

"Give me a chance to explain fully and I will answer your question in the course," Haruka returned, her otherwise flattened voice still sharp at the edge, much like the blade of a knife. "Or did you _not _ask for me to explain myself?"

Shigeru crossed his arms, seeing no course but concession. "Fine, then," he said. "Explain."

Haruka, if he wasn't mistaken, rolled her eyes briefly before continuing.

"The Chief sent Masato here to ask you and Satoshi about the matter of Tano's disappearance. I was in the Temple this morning for more or less the same reason. Shigeru, the Chief is very concerned about the missing people in connection to you and Satoshi."

Shigeru was startled from his pout. "Did you say missing _people_?" he asked, "Not 'person'?"

Haruka gave him a look that showed she was clearly both curious and unimpressed by his ignorance. "Yes," she answered. "First Hikari went absent, and now Tano has disappeared as well."

Uncertain of how to follow the comment, Shigeru quietly tried to process the news, and found himself rubbing at his temples in an old, familiar gesture from his stint as a researcher during a life that now felt far away.

"Hikari has been missing for a week?" he asked Haruka finally.

"Yes," she confirmed.

Shigeru felt himself nodding. "I see. That lines up with the time frame in which Satoshi and I thought that you and Masato had disappeared. I'm not sure how that's significant, or even if it matters at all." He opened his eyes to the fire pit. "Masato was refusing to feed us, but he was _around, _I guess. What about you? Where were you?" he wondered.

"I was in the Temple, as I said."

"For a week?" Shigeru asked in disbelief. He looked up at Haruka, this time appraisingly, seeking out evidence of priestly duties. Sure enough, the bags under her eyes and the paleness of her skin seemed to bely a lack of sleep and sunshine that could be related to a week spent in a temple. It could also be, he thought with a bit of guilt, a result of heartbreak.

Uncomfortable with the frank stare, Haruka shifted in her seat and answered. "Not for the whole week," she said, her voice wavering at first. "But every morning and afternoon during the fitting time, before and after the moon reaches a certain point in the sky."

Shigeru was struck with another discordant thought. "Wait," he said. "When you took us with you, you said that priestesses were only allowed to enter the Temple once a month. What happened to that?"

"As priestess, it is my first and most important duty to liaison between the protectors and the people of Alph. When it was evident that Hikari was nowhere to be found, it was my responsibility to speak with the protectors, and find out that had happened."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"I'm not sure," said Haruka, honestly. "The tradition has always been for the priestess to only enter once a month, but I'm not sure… if there's a reason for it. After a week without hearing any response, I was starting to think that there was only one time a month when the Protectors _would _listen. But that changed this morning."

"They answered," Shigeru guessed.

"Yes." Here, Hikari passed Shigeru a finished cup of tea. It was still too hot for him to drink, so he held it tensely in his hands.

"And the response?" Shigeru prodded Haruka. "I'm right in assuming that since you came here to talk with Masato before you told the Chief, it's a fairly important one."

"Yes," said Haruka. This time she punctuated her tightlippedness with a sip of tea.

"Come on," Shigeru whined, not bothering to hide his exasperation. "Would it really be too much to ask for you to tell me exactly what you were going to tell Masato? Or better yet, to tell me when Satoshi comes back?"

"When Satoshi comes back… Where's Satoshi?" asked Haruka suddenly, as if she had just noticed his absence.

"He's visiting Kasumi and Takeshi's," said Shigeru, waving it off with his hand. "He'll be back soon enough. It's not like he's staying and chatting; he's just picking up dinner."

"Ah," said Haruka. She replaced her emptied tea cup to its place with the other tools beside the fire. "I have to leave soon," she said. "I have to go."

"What? You just got here!" Shigeru reeled. "We're in the middle of talking, and it's important!"

"I have to go see the Chief," said Haruka, pressing down the folds of her long skirt as if preparing to stand.

Shigeru held out a hand to stop her. "Wait a second. There's at least _one _thing that I still want to ask."

Haruka cocked her head slightly, and her hair pieces flashed in the firelight. "Yes?" she asked.

"I want to know why Masato mentioned your feelings," he dropped his voice awkwardly as he said, "about _me_… when we were talking about the legend, a few minutes ago."

Haruka's cheeks colored abruptly.

"That's not a question," she pointed out. "I don't know how to answer it."

"What do your feelings have to do with the legend?"

"Oh." Haruka looked down, avoiding Shigeru's eye contact as if to minimize her embarrassment. "Nothing… apparently."

Shigeru's eyebrows shot up as the words settled down in the bed of his brain. Apparently, _apparently! _He rapidly worked through the ramifications of the word. It implied an assumption, the potential for there being a connection. It hardly mattered whether Haruka was right or wrong that her feelings mattered; what mattered more is that she thought that they _could _in the first place_._ He found himself asking, "Did you think they would have something to do with the legend?"

"I thought they might," she admitted, confirming his theory. "But I was wrong."

Shigeru could feel the breakthrough inches away, dangling in front of him like a morsel. He was going to know the legend, and it was going to be today - if only Haruka gave him just the littlest bit more. "I need you to be more specific," he pleaded. All hints of his earlier exasperation was gone, replaced by fierce and desperate wanting. "Please, Haruka, tell me-"

"I can't, Shigeru," Haruka maintained. "I can't tell you what the legend is."

"Then tell me a good reason why not!" Shigeru demanded. "Is it a rule? Can only one specific person tell me?"

"It's not a rule. I'd tell you if I could. It's just - the story cannot be _told._"

"Why not?" Shigeru whined.

"Because the story that is said of both of you is not a story said with words."

Shigeru stared at Haruka, mystified. "What?" he asked. "How do you tell a story without words? That's what a story _is._"

"Oh, no." Haruka shook her head. "You're looking at it the wrong way. It's not about telling. That would be the same as describing something dead."

Shigeru struggled to understand. "So the legend is alive?" he posited.

"_You're _alive," Haruka said pointedly. "And the legend is something that is lived, and felt, and experienced. It is acted."

"Then how do you know what it is if you've never seen it lived before?" asked Shigeru.

Haruka's eyes lit up. "Oh, because I have, in a way. Because if it's been acted, it can be re-enacted. I've seen it," she said, her voice clear. "At every lunar festival since I was a little girl, staring up into the sky, I watched the legend being performed before my eyes. And Shigeru, you've seen it too."

"I have?" Shigeru felt his eyes flicking across the room, as if his body had disconnected from his brain and was trying to grab onto something that could make sense. He felt nearly dizzy in the scramble. He'd seen the legend, and… _missed _it? Was it possible that he already knew? "Haruka, I don't have a clue what you're talking about," he heard himself saying over the rushing sound in his ears. Is this a riddle? Are you talking about shooting stars? Patterns of the weather? The full moon, maybe? That has nothing to do with lo- I mean, feelings, so that wouldn't have anything to do with the legend, so why-"

"Close your eyes, Shigeru," demanded Haruka. "And stop thinking."

"But I-"

"Close them," Haruka said, her forceful tone the same as the one she'd used earlier with Masato. His face set in a deep frown, Shigeru obeyed, clenching his eyes tightly shut. He could hear Haruka rifling through a bag of something.

"What now?"

"Be patient. You'll see, soon."

He certainly hoped so, because all he could see were splattered patterns of color on the backs of his eyelids.

"Haruka-a-a," he whined.

"Be quiet," She told him, her melodic voice creeping across the room like a soft linen in the wind.

Shigeru thought he could smell some sort of herbs floating in the air. Had she poured it on the fire?

"I want you to remember," she said. "And to feel. How do you feel now?"

"Cold? Confused?"

"Yes, true. But you've felt other things since you've come here." Her voice drifted in and out of his ear, and he found himself answering, "All sorts of things. More than I've felt for a long time."

"And when you first came to Alph, on the second evening? Do you remember that?"

"Yeah." Shigeru grabbed on to the memories easily. "There was a meeting with the chief in a circle by the beach. We convened there, and discussed the Protectors, and then we were taken back to Alph on the back of a giant bird Pokemon. Satoshi and I rode a Staraptor-"

"You're listing, not feeling," she interrupted. "How did you feel then?"

"Okay. Fine." Shigeru concentrated. He could make out the events, the timing and structure and the layout of the plaza, and the way that everyone was squeezed together. But there were other things, like the spicy smells of foods and the taste of wine. He had drunk a lot of wine that evening; he had drunk enough to forget to be upset, to stop being sad, to stop worrying. To be able to sit still in the light of torches and lanterns; to dance with Satoshi around a fire. To move. To be able to move again, without his leg bothering him, without being tortured by the vestiges of Foster's attack on him. To be. _To be._

"I remember it was the first time I'd been happy. In years, I hadn't been that happy," he said to Haruka, absently.

Shigeru began to open his eyes, but she reprimanded him immediately, "Keep your eyes closed!"

He obeyed.

"Did you see anything?" her voice asked. "Do you see anything?"

"Yes," he strained. "There were so many bright lights around us. Swirling."

"In the sky, yes," Haruka encouraged him, "What do you remember about the lights in the sky?"

Shigeru felt his hands reaching out in front of himself, as if led by a force outside of his control. "I see two people falling from the sky, and-" he grasped the air, "- at the end, reaching out to each other."

"Yes," said Haruka. "Who are those people?"

"I couldn't see their faces, I don't know-"

"Who are those people?" she repeated, "Look at them, Shigeru, and tell me-"

Shigeru snapped out of the trance and opened his eyes. The smell of smoke was overpowering now, and he pushed his body out of the pillar and took in deep gulps of clean air. Clearing his mind.

"Why did you do that?" Haruka complained, pouring water on the fire. The steam hissed out, and with it, Shigeru felt the last of his control breaking as easily as a twig.

"I don't know what you want from me!" he shouted. "What do you want me to say? I was watching their performance, and it was great, but I had other things I was worrying about, like Satoshi and I, and what we were doing there, and how we'd gotten there, because it was if _we_ had just come out the sky and landed on this stupid island with no idea how we were going to survive, and how was I going to survive living with him for any length of time after being out of touch, and I wanted to reach out but I didn't know how, I didn't think I could, until my leg healed and everything changed and I was dancing and-"

"You're seeing it," said Haruka in wonder.

Shigeru stared back at her with equal incomprehension. "I don't see anything," he exclaimed. "That's what I'm trying to say."

"Then don't listen to what you're trying to say. Listen to what you're saying."

"I'm saying that it was a really good party and I drank too much-"

"No, your _words_." Haruka reminded him. "Your _story. _You said that two people fell from the sky, and reached out, and then they started dancing."

"I didn't forget," scowled Shigeru. "What does this have to do with the legend?"

"It IS the legend."

Shigeru froze in place, and thought, and substance.

His brain reeled, and so did his body.

"What?" he asked, not expecting an answer. He sat back and tried to steady himself as he tried to make sense of two separate strands that suddenly were being wound together. "That performance. It was the legend, and the legend is - it's - living, so it's what's happening right now. So that means Satoshi and I are the same as they were, losing control, falling through the sky- We're living in Alph, out of control, no; we _came _here that way..."

He turned to Haruka for confirmation. She looked pleased, and the relief of being right shot through Shigeru so sharply that it overrode his frustration with her. "So what do I have to do to work out the final requirements of the legend?" he asked.

"Look at your hands, Shigeru."

He did. They were still in front of him, in a pantomime.

"It's like you said, Shigeru. _Reaching._"

Shigeru spent a moment considering it, then shook his head, the good humor leaving him just as soon as it had gripped him. He drew back, and put his hands securely in his lap.

"That can't be right," he said. "Some of it, I admit, makes sense. But it doesn't explain why Masato talked about your feelings… about you falling in love with me."

"Yes it does," Haruka replied. "Don't you remember what happens after they reach out to each other?"

Shigeru squinted his eyes, hoping the memory would come to him as freely as it had during the meditative session - if that's what it had been - earlier. "Vaguely," he said. "But not really."

"Let me help you," said Haruka. "You said the sky was bright. What fire was in the sky, Shigeru?"

"Lanterns." Shigeru ticked that off easily. The second came as a surprise. "And torches."

"Yes. The two people on the bird pokemon dropped them into a bonfire together, and then the fire burst outward, heating everything."

Haruka looked at him pointedly, but the supplication was useless. "I'm a scientist, Haruka, not some, some philosopher or English teacher. I'm not good with symbolism, so-"

"I think you know exactly what throwing the torches in the fire means," Haruka said quietly.

"Well I'm obviously misinterpreting it."

"Are you?" Haruka questioned. "What do you think it is?"

"Fine. It sounds to me like the two riders-" Shigeru gesticulated broadly to the ceiling as if it were the sky or some other canvas on which he could paint, "were _together,_ coming from a place that wasn't here. In other words, like they were coming from outside of Alph. And at first they are involved with each other but not connected. And then they connect. And then they-" He feels his voice catching as he grew nervous. "Well, then, they fall in love. Or, or, hate. Or are consumed by some other appropriately strong emotion."

"So far, your interpretation sounds the same as mine," said Haruka. "Except for the last part. I don't see why two people would reach out to each other and connect in hatred."

"You've also lived in a tropical idyll all over your life," muttered Shigeru under his breath. Haruka looked at him sharply.

"I don't see why you're attracted to Satoshi," Haruka said, her voice taut. "But it fits the actions and the imagery of the legend perfectly; that the two people who fell together would fall in love together."

"And that's exactly where that interpretation falls apart." Shigeru adjusted himself on his cushion, leaning forward closer to the fire and Haruka. "If we took this apart piece by piece and analyzed it, I already... fell from the sky, with Satoshi. And we've connected. We've reached out, and become friends again or whatever, but that didn't cause the legend to get fixed, and it didn't cause the Protectors to bring us home. The only thing left to do, according to your theory, is to fall in love with each other."

"Yes, and...?"

"It's impossible."

"That's where you're wrong." Haruka was close enough to touch Shigeru. To his surprise, she did; and took his hand in her own. "Shigeru," she said, with a quiet, but firm, determination, "It's not impossible. It's destined in the very words of the legend. It has to happen."

"You're just saying that because _you _think I'm attractive," Shigeru said wryly. "But I don't think-"

A muffled noise outside stopped him mid-sentence. He dropped Haruka's hand and whipped around, just long enough to catch the shape of a person outside the door, and the door hanging swaying back into place inside an empty frame.

"Was that-" Haruka began.

_"Satoshi!"_

Shigeru was on his feet in an instant, running across the room. He shoved aside the curtain and stared out into the street, blinking away the brightness just long enough to see Satoshi tearing off through the snow away from the house.


	24. Chapter 24

As some of you may know, I have been living in Japan for the past four years. In the wake of recent tragedies, the people of Northern Japan, and a number of people very closer to me in Sendai have been going through indescribable events - earthquakes and tsunamis have left hundreds of thousands living in shelters with and without food and heat. Their spirits have at times been crushed in the wake of an 'impenetrably dark night.' In Tokyo, we have been faced with food shortages, aftershocks, unpredictable blackouts and a recent panic induced by nuclear reactors melting down nearby. I know you're probably just a poor student like I am, but even so I ask you to please consider donating money for the relief effort to Japan. Even five dollars can be the difference in helping a family get adequately fed that day. The Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Samaritan's Purse are just three of several hundred aid and relief operations that are in Japan right now, actively saving and changing lives in the wake of this unspeakable tragedy. You can donate online, without even having to get up from your computer. I urge you to do so if you can.

That being said, I'm not even going to try and explain now why the climax of this novel is so… so ironic. And why it was hard to write. But it's been in the works for years, I promise.

* * *

In Ruins

Chapter 24

* * *

Shigeru moved to chase Satoshi before he was lost from his sight.

"Satoshi!" he shouted. "Come back! Satoshi!"

He took three strides out into the snow; however, this was as far as he got before he was struck by the jolting chill of snow shoved into the fabric of his socks. The pin-needle pain of ice seeping through and clamping onto the sole of his foot made him stumble backward into the straw weave of the curtain and the heavy weight of Haruka, who grabbed him by the arm.

"_You _come back!" she shouted into his ear. "Put on your shoes before you go out there!"

"Let go of me!" Shigeru replied, breaking free from her grip and turning back to the street. He cupped his mouth in his hands and yelled. "Satoshi, what are you doing! _Satoshi_!"

When it was clear that Satoshi either didn't hear or didn't care, Shigeru whipped around to face Haruka. "Why did you stop me?" he demanded.

"You're not thinking!" she told him harshly. "Do you want to lose your toes?"

Shigeru looked over his shoulder again, but the street was empty. He felt angry enough to burst.

"It wouldn't have mattered if I'd only been running for a few minutes! Satoshi's gone now!" he fumed. "How am I supposed to know where he went?"

"It's not _that _hard to guess." Haruka pointed to deep indents in the snow that led from the front of the house. "Those are his tracks," she said in an exasperated voice. "You can _follow _him, you know."

Shigeru, admittedly, hadn't thought of that.

"Just give me my shoes," he said, voice clipped to hide his embarrassment. Haruka turned away from him to pull their two pairs of snowshoes from the hook by the door and Shigeru shook his head violently, as if that alone could pull him together. "We've got to find him," Shigeru said to himself as much as his companion. Haruka extended the footwear to him, and Shigeru snatched it from her. He could feel his pulse pounding in his throat as he worked the laces through the loops of his shoes at a faster speed than he'd ever moved in before. "Satoshi has _got_ to be cold. He's been outside for at least an hour by now. Besides, I don't know what could've made him just run off for no reason-"

"I would've thought that you'd guessed already," said Haruka, in the midst of pulling her left sandal onto her foot. Shigeru spared her a brief inquisitive glance as she said, "He saw me inside the house with you."

"So?" he asked.

"Think about it," Haruka repeated. And Shigeru did, furrowing his brow for a moment, just long enough to consider her words - and to dismiss them. He finished securing his first shoe, and hastily moved to the second one.

"Obviously," he said, "he didn't run off just because you were there. He's been complaining every single day about you not being around. He should've been happy to see you again."

"Maybe not in that context," Haruka suggested.

"In what context?" Shigeru asked with a scowl.

Haruka pulled at the rope binding of her snowshoe with a deeply set scowl that seemed suited to match his own. "Are you doing this intentionally?" she wondered. "Or are you actually ignoring the obvious?"

"I'm not ignoring -" Shigeru paused mid-bristle, registering her tone. He looked at Haruka intently. "What are you talking about, Haruka? Do you know something that I don't know, but that I should?" he asked, his voice wet with accusation. "Is there something I _should've _seen, but didn't? Or something that I couldn't have seen, that he did? Like an illusion, maybe?"

Haruka's eyebrows lifted at the word 'illusion' but otherwise she seemed to ignore him and his suggestions. "I doubt it," she replied, tying the last knot fastening her snowshoe firmly to her sandal. "When Satoshi came inside, you were holding my hand, Shigeru. That must have been reason enough."

"What, just that? No," Shigeru shook his head, and stood up straight. "That's not what it was. Come on, let's go find Satoshi."

Haruka followed him silently onto the snow, and Shigeru began to trace the singular path leading down the street with disease.

"I'm serious," he continued, his eyes fixed onto the snow at his feet, "Satoshi couldn't possibly think that you and I were... in anything less than a platonic situation. He knows that I'm not attracted to women."

Shigeru might have sworn he heard her sighing, but didn't know for sure. Besides, even if she had been sighing, he had no idea what that noise would've meant.

"What do you think it meant, then?" he asked defensively. "Do you think he was jealous? That he loves you?"

"More that he loves _you_," Haruka corrected.

Shigeru nearly tripped before managing, "He doesn't."

"But if he did." She paused, then gesticulated to a tiny side street. "I think he went left."

Sure enough, the holes in the ground from Satoshi's footfalls made a clear turn to the left. The tracks were less far apart now, evidence that his stride had shortened. For some reason, he had started walking instead of running. He must've grown tired, Shigeru reasoned, as he began to step exactly in the step-holes that Satoshi had treaded down. "This street goes toward the sea, doesn't it?" he said aloud.

"I think so," said Haruka.

Shigeru continued down the path, taking one of the long staircases and the next two streets in silence. The city was so still that he could hear the air moving past his ears as he walked, and the slide of his trousers brushing together, and the strangely crunching noise of his shoe pressing down on Satoshi's footprints.

"I don't know where we're going," he admitted, eventually, and turned around in search of guidance from his traveling companion. She was only a few meters behind him, but the distance felt as deep as one that could be separated by a fissure. "Haruka?" he asked.

"He's going to the Perch," she said, shortly. "It's for certain."

"Certain?" Shigeru raised an eyebrow. "He could be going nowhere in particular."

"No," said Haruka, disagreeing firmly. She looked at some point past Shigeru that he couldn't see. Her eyes were practically glazed over. "Not after he came in. He's jealous. And he's hurting. He wants to reach out. He's ready."

"It's not possible for you to know _any _of that just from seeing him in the doorframe for two seconds," Shigeru replied, upset. "If you were right, your perception would _actually _be paranormal. "

"I've seen a lot more than just today," Haruka retorted, but didn't, Shigeru noticed, seem willing to disclose exactly what it was that she'd seen. "He loves you."

Shigeru flinched involuntarily. "Stop saying that."

"Why?"

"Because it's not true," Shigeru answered her bluntly.

Haruka's lips turned into a tiny pout. "But it has to be true. The legend-"

"-isn't words. It's imprecise. It could be anything."

"But who else fell from the sky?" Haruka queried, her voice traveling up from behind him like an insistent breeze. "It wasn't me. It wasn't Hikari. We've always been here. Don't you remember the last part of the ritual?"

Shigeru didn't have a chance to answer her before Haruka continued.

"After the pair from the sky drop their torches and explode into light, they vanish. And then they started to dance. And then everyone does, in Alph, all of us together. They were freed, and - and so were we. That's what the legend says will happen, Shigeru, when you break the curse." Haruka tucked back a lock of hair that had slid into her face as she was talking, the delicate turn of her wrist drawing attention to her eyes nearly wet with tears. "You'll set us free from the Protector's bubble around our island. We'll be able to travel, to trade, to go out and see more than we've seen. To meet new people and new pokemon and to experience new things. To live. Don't you see?"

Shigeru was good at lying, and he wished that he could tell her that he didn't understand. But the sincerity of her plea broke though him.

"I'd help you if I could," said Shigeru sincerely. "And I _want_ Satoshi, I told you that. I wish things could be this way, and I could break your curse… But I'm sorry. This isn't the answer. Satoshi doesn't love me."

"Does he love anyone else? " Haruka's voice cut into him, "Does he even _care _about anyone else on this island as much as he cares about you? Does he follow anyone else around? Does he seek approval from anyone else? Why not?"

Shigeru had no answer for her.

"The legend _is _about coming together, Shigeru. If you have love in your heart, then that is what must come from him, as well. You need to ask him what is in his heart."

"Haruka, I-"

He turned around, only to find Haruka was further behind him than she had been before. How had her voice seemed so close, then? he wondered momentarily, but the thought was abandoned when she began to back away from him in long steps. "I have to go _now_," she said. "And so do you. You need to get to Satoshi, and hurry."

"Hurry? Wait - what?" Shigeru took a step toward her, his hand out. "Is the Perch unsafe?"

"It's not that, exactly," said Haruka. "It's what he is doing at the Perch that is dangerous."

Shigeru whirled around and looked intently at the end of the path, which curved down a slight slope. "What's he doing?" he demanded.

"I don't know exactly. But he's visiting Staraptor. And according to the legend, he is trying to connect, remember?" Shigeru had to admit that this would have made sense, if Haruka was right about the legend. Which she wasn't. Haruka continued, "When Satoshi saw me with you, he must have felt upset, like he couldn't reach out to you. So he's going to go looking for something else to reach out to, like his Staraptor."

"What's wrong with him spending time with his pokemon?"

"It's not his pokemon. Staraptor isn't _his._"

Shigeru could tell that Haruka found this fact significant, but to him, it was completely illogical. "Of course Staraptor is his pokemon. Satoshi flies on it all the time."

"It doesn't matter what you think," said Haruka, folding her arms.

An impulse striking him, Shigeru approached the curve in the road. He was not too surprised to see that the road turned into a path zig-zagging down the edge of a snow-crested cliff. At the end of the path the white-capped bird pokemon hutch sat boldly, the final bastion of a city blanketed in snow.

Shigeru was so relieved to see it.

"I'll go talk to him," he decided aloud.

"Good. I'm going to the Chief now," Haruka told him listlessly, and turned around in a brisk but somehow graceful motion.

"All right," said Shigeru to her back. "Will you be bringing us dinner when you're done talking with him?"

Haruka stopped and gave him a long, almost wistful look over her shoulder. A bit of bang caught the edge of her mouth, which was quivering. And then she walked away.

Shigeru stared after her, a rock stifling all the sound in his throat, until she was lost beyond buildings.

He felt himself trembling as well.

* * *

When Satoshi stumbled into the Perch, his eyesight blurred by tears, he could only see where he was because of the smell. The hay and musk that filled his nostrils was a sharp departure from the world outside, too cold and too muted to sense with his body.

After running through white streets for what felt like an hour, the rush of scent was less welcome than it should have been. If anything, he wished he could sense _less _before he was bowled over by his feelings completely. It was nearly impossible to stand in the weight of them, now that the veil over his heart had lifted with stunning clarity, just like the door curtain he'd had in his hand when he'd come home to Haruka's.

He had felt hurt enough to die. Like nothing could ever make him happy again, and he wanted to be happy. He _wanted. _That was the problem; that was the thing he had been avoiding ever since he had achieved the dream on which he'd staked his entire life - and won the Championship at Indigo Plateau.

He'd forgotten what it was like to want anything.

The realization burnt inside of him strongly enough to wrench out tears. He staggered into the center of the room, searching blindly. He could hear the rustle of wings, of pokemon nearby, and finally he found Staraptor in its corner. It battled its wings in startled greeting.

Satoshi smiled weakly at it, came up to it, and petted the giant pokemon on its slick, orange beak. Once, twice. It did not take long before his tears began to fall, and snot. He was sobbing, and his face was dripping and blotchy because his heart was doing terrible things to him.

"You won't - won't believe, Staraptor," he said, his voice catching in the back of his mouth like it did in a Politoad's, "just how stu - how _stupid, _I_ - _that I've been -"

He rubbed his face with his sleeve and cringed at the harsh feeling of coarse fabric against the raw skin around his eyes and nose. Staraptor scratched at the ground with its claw, its massive body shifting weight and all the feathers seeming to ripple as they caught the dull light in the room. Satoshi felt himself clenching up further, even with Staraptor docile at his touch. For all that he had run to pokemon in the past to soothe him, it suddenly just seemed so _unfamiliar_.

He couldn't believe it had really been that long since he'd sought _company _from a pokemon, and not just a basic service, or the companionship of… of a pet.

He hadn't had a single pokemon battle for over a year. After Indigo Plateau, there hadn't been much point; nothing else had seemed worth reaching for after he'd won. What was the point of finding something new to reach for, when he'd gotten the _ultimate _and it wasn't enough? Why _not_ just lay in bed for a year and eat and suck off of others?

And then he'd come to Alph, and slowly, without even noticing it, he'd come to want again.

It was just little things at first. Like the want to have an adventure. Then, it had been to do well, to compete, as he and Shigeru had sat side by side. And then somewhere along the way, not even knowing it, not even thinking of it even once, he'd come to want that closeness as an end in itself_._

He could've denied it once, but what was the good in that? He'd tried to believe it was all a hallucination, but he couldn't, not after having to stare directly at Shigeru and Haruka's hands clasped together as they were sitting closely by the fire, the words _inevitable _or _meant to be _or something like that echoing in the air.

The want he'd felt for Shigeru outside Takeshi and Kasumi's house _wasn't gone. _It wasn't _going _to go away. It was real. And that caused so many more problems that stretched beyond himself. It meant that the other things he'd felt and thought about since that morning _weren't _theproducts of his imagination. And that meant his fears about the world being unreal were just as present as they had been before.

The thought doubled back at him. If it had really been like Shigeru said, that the whole time it was them (him) at the center of the illusion, how was he supposed to know?

Or was it really more a question of how _couldn't _he?

"I'm an idiot, aren't I," he said to Staraptor, his voice thick with self-loathing. He looked at the pokemon in the eye, waiting for it to give him some sort of response. But the bird pokemon looked at him, expression blase as always, as Satoshi stood there and sniffled. "What?" he asked it eventually. "Do you really have nothing to say?"

Staraptor did nothing more than pick at the ground with its feet.

Satoshi swallowed back his disappointment. "Fine. Don't try to help," he said, curtly. "It's not like you could have anything to say, anyway. You barely know me."

The pokemon cried out, and flapped its wings as if to say, It's not my fault. You barely come to visit me.

But it was also possible that he was saying, Who would want to know a pathetic loser like you?

Satoshi couldn't really tell. He had to admit that he wasn't Staraptor's trainer, after all; he was just someone who had rode the pokemon a couple of times when he'd needed to. He had never connected with it, not empathically, as he had with his other pokemon, and Pikachu in particular.

If Pikachu had been there, Satoshi would have understood _exactly _what it was trying to say. He was sure of it. And Pikachu would comfort him, too, because Pikachu was his best friend and was always there for him when he needed it. If only Pikachu _were _there.

The surge of emotion that jolted Satoshi at this thought was intense enough that he nearly staggered backwards.

Of course he missed Pikachu. The yellow pokemon was his best friend. It had been by his side _every day _for the past six years, sharing everything with him! How could he have forgotten? And his other pokemon, what about them?

As the emotion rocked him, the gulf in Satoshi's heart started to show itself to him, gaping so widely that he could see nothing outside of it. He could barely hold back a cry as the want mixed with his shame for denying it. There were so many other things that he had been overlooking, and Shigeru had just been the start of it. He wanted to go home and see his pokemon. And maybe lay on his soft mattress in his warm bed, or maybe not. Maybe he could sleep outdoors again in a tent, or in a sleeping bag, surrounded by his friends and the trees. He wanted to live his life. He was tired of running from it.

The admission that he cared, that he wanted - even if it was just in his mind - made everything around him just that much clearer, and heavier. He stared at his empty hands miserably as he felt the emptiness left by the emergence of a final want that he hadn't been denying, but he simply hadn't _had: _it was the desire to go home.

It seemed too impossible.

He turned from Staraptor, and cried until he couldn't.

It felt like it had been days by the time the tears began to dry, and it left him thirsty and more tired than he'd even been before. He wiped his face, wondering what he was going to do next, wondering how he could survive a 'next,' when he heard a voice calling into the Perch from outside.

He looked up, and could see through the doorway Shigeru's figure half-sliding, half-walking towards him in quick paces down the tumbling snowy hill. He was shouting, predictably, Satoshi's name.

For a moment, Satoshi stood in conflict between the warring desires to run away from Shigeru, and to stay with him. The point was moot, anyway, because there was nowhere he could go to get away. Resolutely, he set his shoulders and swallowed hard enough that he could feel his adam's apple bobbing inside his throat.

He went outside, and felt the wind nipping against the tips of his ears.

Shigeru shouted out his name again, though this time with something like relief. Satoshi didn't know how to feel about that, except for wary.

"Shigeru," he called back as his friend came close. "What are you doing here?"

He briefly hoped that it wasn't too obvious to Shigeru that he'd been crying, but he seemed to be too busy flicking the sweat off his forehead, beneath his auburn bangs. He slowed as he approached Satoshi, and his cheeks and nose were red.

"I had to follow you," he said to Satoshi. "You just ran off like crazy…"

Shigeru trailed off as if expecting an explanation that Satoshi wasn't ready to give. With his new insight to himself, seeing Shigeru actually _hurt_, and Satoshi bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself under control. And while he knew it wasn't subtle, he didn't care. He didn't know what else to do.

"What were you doing anyway," he managed to ask.

Shigeru screwed up his brow. "When?" he asked. "Are you talking about when I was at Haruka's just now?" Satoshi stayed silent, and Shigeru correctly picked that up as confirmation. Obviously frustrated, he avoided answering by means of accusation: "Don't play stupid, you saw everything when you walked in while Haruka and I were talking and-"

"Yeah, _talking_. I saw that." Satoshi interrupted before he could help himself, and Shigeru looked at him with incredulity.

"Satoshi..?"

"What?" Satoshi returned. Although his tone of voice, even in his own opinion sounded nowhere near innocent, he was at least more successful at keeping out the bitter taint than he had been the time before.

Shigeru stepped closer to him.

"You didn't actually hear anything we said, did you?"

"Oh, I heard you mention something about the legend, but it was kind of overwhelmed by the fact that you were…" Satoshi caught himself, and looked away. "You know what, never mind. It's none of my business."

"Our conversation had to do with the legend. Of course it's your business," Shigeru retorted.

"What, you actually want me to interrupt the next time you and Haruka are having a moment alone?" he asked before he had thought it through, and immediately regretted it. He didn't want to hear about Shigeru and Haruka together. Thinking about it felt as awful as throwing up. It hurt like hitting things; like hating _life._

Shigeru suddenly looked almost pale against the snow.

"I wasn't-" he started.

"I don't care-" Satoshi interjected.

"Well, I don't care that you don't care," Shigeru argued. Satoshi, feeling like there was no recourse, bit out any angry 'fine,' and tried to step around Shigeru, but Shigeru moved in front of him, his arms spread out wide to stop him. "I'm still going to say what I want to say," he spoke quickly, "Listen, there's nothing going on between me and Haruka. She's not my type. Not even close."

"Oh yeah?" Satoshi spat out, and tried to push through Shigeru. "She said it was inevitable. Leave me alone."

Shigeru's hand grabbed onto his bicep. "Satoshi," he said. Satoshi felt his heart racing, and he could barely breathe at the assault of want that made him start leaning into Shigeru's hand before he even knew what he was doing.

"_What?"_

"That's not what's going on," Shigeru told me. He was looking at Satoshi oddly, but that wasn't too unusual. "I told you I was gay. I _told _you. And Haruka, as I am sure we can both agree, isn't a man. Okay?"

Relief flooded through Satoshi at the words, but it still wasn't enough. He struggled in Shigeru's grip. "I heard Haruka," he complained. "And she said something about destiny and-"

"We were talking about the legend," Shigeru told him. "Not me and Haruka's relationship."

"Well, you should have waited for me to get back," Satoshi shot at him.

"Yeah. I know. I'm _sorry. _I'll tell you everything once we get back inside somewhere warm, okay? You look like you're freezing. Anyway, let's go back to Haruka's place and wait for her to come back from her meeting with the Chief."

Shigeru paused, and then his eyes momentarily lost focus. A hand came up to partially cover his mouth as he thought aloud. "We should go quickly," he said. "She didn't say why, exactly, but she was saying that we were out of time-"

"Time for what?" Satoshi asked. He was still looking at Shigeru's mouth, unable to look away now that Shigeru had drawn attention to them with his hand. His lips were a good color, if slightly chapped, and the top one was just barely thicker than the bottom one. Satoshi had never noticed. And it was making him tremble at the knees. He quickly looked off into the snow, trying to _un-_notice Shigeru's lips so he could focus instead on the words coming out of them. He was, after all, still kind of upset.

"I don't know what we don't have time for, just that we don't have it," Shigeru was saying. And then, "Hey… do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Satoshi looked immediately at the place where Shigeru's hand rested on his arm - where he knew his heart beat was pulsing wildly. "Also, no," he tacked on.

"Come on, you've got to feel it. The ground is moving beneath us. Again." Shigeru released Satoshi. Stepping back, it was immediately apparent that the trembling Satoshi had felt in his knees hadn't been a reaction to Shigeru's proximity, but an echo of a transmission from the ground.

"We might be experiencing an after-shock from the earthquake this morning," said Shigeru, practical even as it was laced with the tiniest hint of fear. "Even though it's kind of late... We should probably take cover."

"Good idea," said Satoshi. He looked around himself in a circle, eyes scanning all directions. He could see the Perch, the side of a cliff, a long road, and the ocean. None of the places seemed to be immediately viable sanctuaries, and he nearly said as much to Shigeru, but his friend was looking past him.

"What about up?" he suggested. "If we're off the ground, that's got to be the safest place to be."

Satoshi had already turned around, joining in the direction of Shigeru's gaze. "Staraptor!" he called out and walked two steps into the doorway of the Perch. "Come on, get us out of here, there's a-"

He stopped mid-sentence. Eyes wide with shock, he looked through the door to the Perch and at the two visibly ruffled bird pokemon sitting at attention along the walls. Staraptor was no longer among them. He was gone.

"No way," Satoshi said breathlessly. He stumbled out of the Perch in the midst of the trembler, with the hair risen on the back of his neck and the thoughts from earlier that spoke of illusions and impossibilities resounding in his mind. "No _way! _Staraptor was just here! What the hell is going on!"

A huge chunk of snow tumbled from the Perch's roof only a few meters right of where they were standing.

"I don't know," said Shigeru, unevenly, "But I don't like this. Let's continue this conversation somewhere safer."

"Where?" Satoshi grumbled. "The earthquake should be over any second now!"

As if in protest, the ground made a sudden jerk and rumbled with a new surge that seemed almost like waves trapped in a swimming pool, resounding on each other, strong enough to force Satoshi into locking his knees and swinging his arms forward to keep his balance. Shigeru, too, looked unbalanced when Satoshi turned his gaze on him, but it had nothing to do with the way Shigeru was standing in the center of a beaten-down path of snow with the icy face of a cliff looming over him.

"Like I said, we should go somewhere safe," he insisted, his breath making the words short. "If we can."

In that moment, something clicked inside of Satoshi's head.

He couldn't place its source. It was something about Staraptor's inexplicable disappearance, the sudden frequency of earthquakes and the bump that he knew he could still feel on the back of his skull that, in combination, finally stopped him in his tracks and made him stare at Shigeru with all the clarity he had lacked when they had been sitting in the steam-filled tub of the Bathhouse together.

"Why bother running and finding somewhere safe?" he heard himself saying. "We're just in an illusion, anyway!"

Shigeru turned his head to stare back at Satoshi, startled. _"What?"_

"You were right," Satoshi said, approaching Shigeru with uneven steps, his arms out for balance. "Everything in Alph, including these earthquakes, are just illusions. They can't actually hurt us!"

"But you just got a concussion from an earthquake this morning!" Shigeru retorted in equal parts anger and disbelief.

"And that's how I figured it out," Satoshi claimed. "You were right about everything; that this place is being controlled by the Unown, that the Unown are listening to us, that they're listening to _me..._"

"Now is not the time for this," Shigeru barked at him, and began to stagger off through the snow. Satoshi saw no other option but to follow after him. They stumbled forward, half-sliding and half-running on the snow even as the tremors seemed to grow.

"Where are even going?" Satoshi asked, his voice raised to reach over the sound of distant buildings moving on their foundations, of pebbles tumbling down the sides of the cliff face. Shigeru didn't answer him, and Satoshi looked around just in time to see a part of the Perch's roof crumbled in exactly on the spot where they'd been standing. Even though it was just a bunch of hay and snow that had slipped between beams, it was too close to be coincidental, Satoshi thought to himself. He didn't know whether to be amused or terrified.

Shigeru seemed to have chosen the latter after misstepping and nearly falling over in the wake of that particularly strong swing of the ground.

"I hope all the shaking doesn't cause an avalanche off these cliff faces," he said, his voice tight, "There's something strange about these tremors."

"That's because," Satoshi told him, gritting his teeth, "It's not an earthquake!"

"Except that it obviously is," said Shigeru, and paused as much for breath as to concentrate on guiding his foot. "The thing is, I can't tell what kind of wave this is - or what sort of direction the plates must be moving in. It feels like all of - all of the waves are going everywhere at once, directly - under my feet and not just thousands of miles underground-"

_"That's because it's not an earthquake!_" Satoshi repeated, and Shigeru turned on him fiercely. Satoshi just answered him with an obstinate glare. The waves were getting stronger, he could feel it in the shaking of his bones inside the muscles of his thighs. Pretty soon he wouldn't be able to walk.

"Fine! Explain!" Shigeru finally gave in. "Just do it_ quickly_."

Satoshi gathered his breath, sparing only the briefest thought on how it was strange that suddenly the thing he had been willing to go to any length to avoid talking about earlier that afternoon seemed so easy thing to confront, if only because everything else was so much more difficult by comparison. Even walking, even breathing.

He locked his knees and spoke.

"This morning," he said. "I wanted the earthquake to stop and it stopped as soon as I told it to, it _did. _And - I think I'd made it start, too."

"Why did it stop?" Shigeru asked immediately. "No, _how?_"

"I don't know," said Satoshi, "I wasn't trying to do it, it just happened."

"Then you have no way of knowing you caused it," Shigeru said, dismissing him with the wave of a hand, and began to walk forward. "Come on, let's keep going until we find somewhere safe-"

Satoshi could barely think now, much less focus on each footstep that struggled to find a secure hold in the snow.

"The earthquakes also started the same way," he tried. "Both when the earthquake brought us to Alph, and this morning, too! I was doing the same thing."

"What, playing with pottery?" Shigeru scoffed.

"No, you idiot," Satoshi snapped. "I was thinking about you!"

Shigeru went rigid, and Satoshi barreled forward, seizing the chance to speak while Shigeru was rendered without a response.

"I'm not as smart as you, but I can see the pattern for this. Each time I start feeling really strongly about something, it's you. And whenever that starts to happen, enough to make me cry, or something, there has been an earthquake, and I know that the Unown must be behind it. You said before that the Unown were probably controlling illusions. I didn't want to believe it, but... You were right."

The words were hardly out of his mouth before, barely three meters away, a huge chunk of earth detached from the side of the cliff and crashed onto their path, blocking the entrance back to Alph. The previously flat stretch of snow on the road before them suddenly lurched, a portion seeming to sink into the ground. Shigeru pointedly looked away from it, and back to Satoshi. It was obvious as much from his expression as anything else that they were trapped. Even if the earthquake were to suddenly subside, the road was lost.

"We're trapped in," Satoshi stated dumbly.

Shigeru turned to him, nearly falling over in the process, and thus losing half the power of his pointed barb: "If you're so sure that this is an illusion, that this is _your _illusion, then why don't _you_ just make it end already?"

"I don't know what to say," said Satoshi.

"Well what did you say last time?"

"_Stop!" _Satoshi shouted.

And it worked.

The earthquake abruptly came to a halt. And that wasn't all. With it, even the chunks of snow that had been breaking apart went static. Powder snow that had been shooting off from tiny crash sites were suspended in the air as if held in place by invisible strings. The ground was still. The _sky _was still.

"You did it," said Shigeru with no lack of awe. Satoshi could barely even breathe from relief, quickly followed by disbelief. His hunch had been right. Alph _wasn't_ real. The Unown had created it out of illusions, maybe even out of images that had come from his own mind. And most importantly of all: he was in control.

For a moment, Satoshi could see all the opportunities, all the possibilities that the power brought to him. He could control people, he could live however he wanted and do whatever he wanted, for as long as he was still in Alph. And maybe if he had made that discovery just a day before, those possibilities would've been pleasing enough to make him want to stay forever. But there was only one thing left he could possibly want from the Unown, and it was something an illusion couldn't fulfill.

There was a lurch in the ground beneath them, and somewhere not too far away, he heard the sound of wood snapping and the massive heave of a building giving its final breath before collapsing into the ground. When he looked around himself, he couldn't see anything but white snow, and mottled white sky. And then the ocean. With nothing in-between it.

"The Perch is gone!" Satoshi shouted.

"That was _not _supposed to happen," Shigeru just finished saying, and then both he and Satoshi were thrown to their sides by a giant seismic wave. Satoshi crashed into the ground, the side of his head scraping against the icy top layer of the several days old snow. The knot on his head from that morning flared up in pain, and he grabbed his head, dizzy and disoriented for just a moment as Shigeru began to shout angrily through the earthquake, battering the ground just as intensely as it had before.

"What's happening?" he yelled. "I thought you told it to 'stop'!"

"And it _did _stop_,_" Satoshi protested as he righted himself shakily. "Maybe this is an aftershock?"

"If you'd actually stopped the earthquake in the first place, there shouldn't be aftershocks," Shigeru returned, "Unless you're_ asking_ the Unown for the world to shake apart!"

"I don't think I am!"

"Why don't you _know?"_

Satoshi floundered as all rationality quickly evacuated his brain. "How could I?" he cried. "I haven't understood anything since I got here! And I'm not just talking about Alph, but me. I mean, I thought I knew what I wanted, but I didn't! I only _just_ figured out that I wanted to see Pikachu, that I wanted to go home, that…"

Trailing off, Satoshi gestured helplessly in the empty space in front of him, as if the air could explain himself better than he could do alone. It, at least, wasn't churning uncontrollably from forces he couldn't see.

"That doesn't make _sense,_" Shigeru said. "Why would you want the earthquake to continue unless you wanted to die? No. You don't want to die on any level, even on the levels that you don't understand, right? Now, maybe the Unown were listening to you before, but I think… I think they've stopped listening and now they're doing what _they _want to do. They're getting out of control, and _that's_ why the earthquakes are happening."

"How do you get them back under your control, then?" Satoshi wondered aloud. He briefly flashed back to the time when he was eleven, and had first seen the Unown swirling around the ceiling of the Hale mansion. The Unown had been going crazy then from overextending their power, or at least that's what Entei had said. How had he, and Molly, and his friends managed to break through…?

"Molly had to believe in Entei," he said.

Shigeru spent a long moment staring at him, moving and yet not moving: it felt to Satoshi like he and Shigeru were being tugged in four directions by some contest of will, when it was really just the earth fighting them, point by point and punch for punch.

"That's right," said Shigeru finally. "Molly Hale made the illusion real, didn't she? At least on a practical level."

Satoshi felt like this information was nearly as _far _from being helpful as it could be. "Yeah, but… Shigeru, I don't think I can make Alph real on my own like Molly did."

"That's not the point. You don't need Entei because you have the legend. It's the legend you have to make real."

"I don't even know what the legend is," said Satoshi, tiring of the back and forth rocking of the earth and wishing it would just stop so he could sit down and hold his brains inside his head. "I don't care about it, or _anything_. I just want to go home! That's all I want!"

Satoshi could hardly think straight, and didn't care because Shigeru was close enough that he could feel his warmth radiating straight into to his bones.

"Is it?" Shigeru asked, a strange gleam in his eye. "Is that _really_ all you want?"

"Yes it is!" he lied immediately, and regretted it just as quickly. Shigeru _knew _him, and he was a bad liar in the first place. Shigeru stared at him with enough intensity to make him cringe. He felt like he was being searched; as if he were a criminal trapped inside his own body. Unable to stop himself, his feet started to back away, but his snowshoes only gave him so much advantage over the shaking ground before they began to slide in different directions. He lost his balance and Shigeru caught him, but instead of letting go he held down, clutching at Satoshi tightly by the shoulders.

"Satoshi," asked Shigeru, nearly choking up in the final syllable. He swallowed. And then asked in a rush, "Are you in love with me?"

The question came so fast that initially Satoshi couldn't even process it.

But Shigeru was staring at him, as the words rang inside of his head until at last the noise took on meanings and stunned Satoshi into speech. He opened his mouth, not even knowing what he was saying except that he was suddenly repeating Shigeru's words desperately.

"Now is not the time-" he managed, but Shigeru cut him off, practically shouting in his face,

_"_ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH ME?"

Satoshi couldn't answer. He just shook.

Not because he didn't know the answer, or even that he had trouble saying it - but simply because he'd never even thoughtof it. He had been avoiding even the most ancillary descriptors for his relationship with Shigeru, or with anyone, for so long that he'd forgotten that the word 'love' had ever been there, that there had ever been a time when he'd been ten years old and wondered, just wondered what it would be like to be with Shigeru forever. And now, with anxiety bursting out in patches across his body, like perspiration would have struggled from his skin if there had only been more heat, he realized that maybe it was finally time think about it. And of course it was _there_. And although there were other feelings mixed up inside of him, too, like fear, _especially_ fear, love wasn't a feeling anyway. It was the force that had driven him to this moment in the snow with Shigeru, and there was no use for pretending any differently now.

"Satoshi_, _did you even hear me?_" _Shigeru exclaimed, trying to force his attention. It wasn't necessary.

"Yeah," he said, and looked Shigeru straight in the eye. "And I am."

Shigeru didn't even look that surprised.

He just stared back at Satoshi, his irises flickering in their beds. Like _they_ were looking for something. Waiting for something.

Satoshi didn't know whether to feel humiliated or offended.

"What? Don't you have anything to say?" he asked, and pushed at Shigeru's chest violently, expecting him to respond or _something,_ but the other boy barely gave, stiff as a stone. And the only reason he may have only moved as much as he had was because it had gotten so difficult to stand without knees clacking together or collapsing while the earth was still reeling from an attack beneath its crust.

"Nothing's happening," Shigeru said. Now, at least, concern seemed to be knitting between his eyebrows, but it barely even constituted as an attempt at empathy as far as Satoshi was concerned.

"What the hell do you expect to happen?" Satoshi asked angrily. "Did you think I was going to sing to you or something?"

"No, Satoshi, I was expecting something… something to change. For the earthquake to stop, and for us to go home. That was supposed to _save_ us," Shigeru answered with finality. "But it didn't. I'm… I'm sorry."

"Save us? What are you saying? That it's too late?"

Satoshi got his answer when Shigeru yelled "Watch out!" and suddenly threw them both down into the snow in a flurry of limbs. Chunks of ice and rock rained from the side of the cliff in their direction, but at least it wasn't the brunt force of the landslide that Shigeru was taking with his back. The full swing of the earth had taken care of that much, aiding Shigeru in flinging them even further than they could have moved by their own power. Satoshi had no time to be grateful when he could see the rustling of large stones along the part of the cliff face closer to them now, where hair-thin cracks were already spreading through the rocks and morphing into bolder and bolder lines.

"I think it's going to fall on us in any second," Satoshi said, attempting to right himself. Shigeru was already moving his feet beneath him, as if to stand up from a squat. He held outt a hand, but Satoshi couldn't tell if it was him offering help, or mocking him, or just trying to find his own balance, Satoshi ignored him and pushed up from the ground with a grunt - his fingers were burning from the feeling of snow pressed down between his fingers - but then another jolt hit and he was sent back to the ground. Shigeru, too, tumbled forward to his knees and practically into Satoshi's lap with a loud cry.

Satoshi bent down to him immediately. "Are you okay?" he began to ask, but could barely get out the first two syllables before Shigeru shook his head, managing just a broken "No, I-" Then his hands, one of which had grasped the snow and the other, Satoshi's knee, reached out and wrapped around Satoshi's shoulders. Satoshi nearly doubled over by the sudden weight as Shigeru embraced him as if he were grounding himself to a lightning rod in the middle of a thunder storm, chest flat against chest, legs wedged between leg. The weight was heavy, and the earth was still undulating so violently that Satoshi found himself being overpowered, and eventually the forces all conspired to push him back into the snow, where the sharp chill of melting ice seeped through his clothes and tore out his breath from him. He looked up. Shigeru was breathing heavily, braced above him, and For a brief moment it felt like the fantasy Satoshi had had outside of Kasumi and Takeshi's house. for a moment, he was so dizzy with want that he could only see white.

By the time he had recovered, Shigeru had put his head on Shigeru's shoulder, their necks warm where the bare skin touched together. They were both shaking, but it was as if they were only one body now being rocked by the earthquake. Yet Satoshi had almost never felt further apart.

What made it worse was that for the first time that Satoshi had ever seen, Shigeru had admitted to being wrong about a theory. Of all the times to be wrong, it seemed from both his words and actions that Shigeru was implying that the stakes had been their lives.

And they were going to die like this.

Satoshi had already cried himself out at the Perch in front of Staraptor, and he had already told Shigeru how he felt. He had even run across the entire city in the snow. There was nothing left in him to send out to the world but his misery, it seemed. His eyes rolled back in his head. When he looked up, hoping to see a spot of sun through the clouds before the earth began to crack, he was shocked to see that he was no longer looking at a snowy landscape. Or at least, not that alone.

Orbiting above him and Shigeru were a horde of wavering black and white blurs. They seemed almost like they were dancing as they swayed in patterns and shapes that rose and fell in time with the earth. They were the Protectors. The _Unown_. Satoshi knew it instinctively, and this time - without Pikachu, Charizard, Entei, and all of his friends by his side - they seemed so much more threatening. Beyond them, stretching into the sky, a blue wall of light had been raised, holding back the crumbling cliff side, and trapping him and Shigeru in. He could see beyond his and Shigeru's feet that the snowy path on either side of the barrier had already begun slipping into the ocean.

"What is this?" he found himself whispering. "Shigeru, the Protectors, they're… all around us."

"It must be the legend," Shigeru bit out. "They weren't there before. They must have showed up when you said you loved me."

"The legend? Why would the Protectors care about me telling you that I _loved _you_?_" Satoshi asked in disbelief. The final ends of his words were punctuated by another terrible noise; it sounded like the crack of lightning or even the crack of an island breaking apart. He didn't want to look away from Shigeru to see, but looking at Shigeru was almost as painful. Shigeru looked almost angry as they shook in sync.

And then suddenly, Shigeru moved back. He picked himself up, taking the weight off of Satoshi and undergoing a devastating change. His eyes, otherwise dull with pain, began to shine with discovery - a look that seemed suddenly not unlike hope.

"You're absolutely right," he said, his voice filling with awe and strength. "You're right, that's it! It's not about words. It's action."

"What?" Satoshi stared at Shigeru, stilluncomprehending. "What are you talking about?"

"The legend!" Shigeru exclaimed.

The force of the next wave nearly made Satoshi sick, and it was strong enough to throw both him and Shigeru onto their sides. Satoshi briefly felt as though he were looking up into the sky and seeing it filled with frozen-over stars and swirling black monsters, but he couldn't tell if it was just a consequence of his eyes rolling into the back of his head.

"Agh!" he cried out suddenly as a pain bit into his shoulder. He only caught the briefest glance of a few chunks of ice glancing off of Shigeru, too, but _he_ was whirling in his epiphany and oblivious to pain. Satoshi wondered how big the next block of ice would be that rained down from the cliff, and if it, too, would miss its mark.

"What about the legend?" he pleaded with Shigeru.

"Haruka," he was already saying, "told me that the key to the legend was actions, not words. What were you doing when all this started, when the first earthquake came?"

"I was… crying," Satoshi admitted, "alone. Thinking about you, like I said before."

"Okay, so what if that's what got their attention?" Shigeru speculated desperately. "If you were so sad that they brought you and I here for all this time, what do you think would happen if you were doing something that made you really, really happy?"

"You think if I did - or, felt - something opposite of what I did when they brought us here, we could go home," Satoshi realized.

"Yes," declared Shigeru with satisfaction, and Satoshi felt the magnitude of his misery immediately. Something of it must have shown in his face, because Shigeru said to him,

"Don't you get it? This is our _last shot_!"

"Well it's hopeless!" Satoshi shot back, and then Shigeru grabbed him by the shoulders and began to shake him, as if the earthquake hadn't been doing that enough on its own. "Why are you giving up so easily?" he shouted. "That's not like you! How come you can't be happy?"

Satoshi tried to bat him away with his arms, barely able to muster up the energy that was being overwhelmed by his feelings.

"Didn't you hear anything I've said all afternoon?" he shouted back, "I know I'm an idiot, but did you even _think _about what I said before applying it to your over-stretched, stupid brain? Besides the fact that we're about to die in a world that's not even real and is probably my fault for existing in the first place, did it even _occur _to you that I might be upset because I love you and you don't love me back!"

Shigeru's eyes widened in shock. It only gave Satoshi momentary satisfaction, rather short-circuited by the creeping feeling of numbness that came from laying in the snow for too long. He tried to gather his breath - he had started panting, it felt like he hadn't stopped running ever since he had arrived at Haruka's. His heart was beating wildly in his chest. He could feel Shigeru's hands near his sides, curled into fists - and that was all.

The earth wasn't shaking anymore.

But Satoshi had no time to think about that before Shigeru had grabbed him by his voice.

"You're so _wrong,_" Shigeru was saying with a low and quiet vehemence. "Who said you can't be happy? Who said you can't get what you want? You can't just assume things when you never even _asked_."

"What was I _supposed_ to ask?"

When Shigeru didn't reply, Satoshi was forced to hazard a look into Shigeru's eyes.

It was like looking into a grate, into a fire that had been stoked inside a kiln for days, and then being caught up in the burning. Satoshi was taken aback as a flare answered from within himself, his body moving faster than his mind, responding to signals that had been sent in words Satoshi didn't know. He flicked his eyes up from Shigeru's lips to his eyes and back to his lips, lips that were softly parted and wet, almost as if they were waiting for him.

It wasn't possible.

Maybe he wanted it so badly that he was just imagining that Shigeru's chin had lowered, and that his face was closer than it had been less than a minute before, because how? _How _could Shigeru be suggesting with his body what he seemed to be suggesting after he had been so cold to Satoshi before?

Satoshi flicked his gaze to watch the Unown - they had formed a circle above his and Shigeru's bodies - and kept popping in and out of existence around them. The number seemed to be growing by the second into a humming, singing swarm, and it was frightening Satoshi more than the earthquake had, because they were holding the strings to his and Shigeru's lives and bursting outward in an endless storm.

He couldn't bear to look at them. It felt too much like staring death in the face.

But he could feel Shigeru's breath against his face, warm like a heater in a winter room, and the burning that this caused in his stomach was enough to remind him that he was still alive, and he and Shigeru were the only things that were real and if they were going to die, anyway, there was no use in being scared.

Shigeru's name escaped from his mouth unbidden, and when he tried to gather his thoughts desperately it came out in an inarticulate jumble of words.

"I… Do you…Is it okay, if I…"

"God, Satoshi," Shigeru answered breathily. "Just… do it already."

His eyelids fell shut.

Before he even knew what he was supposed to do, Satoshi was doing the only thing he could think of, angling his head at the softest incline. It was like Shigeru had just been _waiting _to match him plane to plane because all he had to do was press forward into the sparest space between skin and skin before the distance was breached between them.

And then it was _so easy._

Their lips slid against each other's, fresh and yet familiar, like trying on a perfectly-fitting new set of clothes.

The outside world went silent; the singing, the shaking - everything dampened of sound that he could hear Shigeru's quiet hitch of breath against his mouth. There was a pause - it was like a shock of its own - and then Satoshi felt Shigeru returning the pressure of lips against lips. The inner world was violent with wonder.

Satoshi had never known or imagined that a touch could take away every bad feeling in the world - that it could be just as intent as words; that it could give consent and caress all at once, that it could shoot straight down to the pit of a stomach like the first bite of an exotic and delicious treat. That it answered a plea he hadn't known ran as deeply in him as blood, and as it filled him he was left with a feeling that floated on the words _this is Shigeru doing this to you - he wants to do this with you -_ _he didn't say no. _Not once in his entire life, he was absolutely certain, had Satoshi ever felt so desperate and yet so impossibly happy, just like Shigeru had said he _could _be - it made up for everything, every sad day, every painful, lonely moment.

So in that next instant, when the world exploded, he didn't even flinch. He barely knew that blue light broke out around them, ripping the world apart like paper. He barely knew that the ground and Alph were falling away from the soles of his shoes. Perhaps there was black all around him; perhaps, this time, he wouldn't wake up after ceasing to exist. It didn't matter. He only knew one thing that mattered: the mouth and arms of his best friend, capturing him with his lips and folding him in his arms like a prize.


	25. Chapter 25

Sorry for the long interval. I finished the chapter… and then I rewrote it completely. Anyway, Japan drama continues. Love for you all continues, too.

* * *

**In Ruins**

Chapter 25

* * *

There was nothing left of Satoshi to cling to any more.

Shigeru still felt the remnants of the kiss fading as his consciousness was encroached by a compelling darkness, pouring out thickly as paint from a bottomless bucket, drowning out even the memory of a world filled with light, and Satoshi. In spite of everything, it seemed, the earthquake had consumed them. He felt that, now, there was nothing left to do before being erased forever but to reconcile himself with happiness; for having had that single moment of knowing that Satoshi loved him, too.

For a while, this was everything.

But then the void faltered, and there wasn't even a hint of endless peace but incompleteness. This was not everything! The magnitude of his own existence compounded upon him, and he was not as good at self-deception as he had been in the past. Whatever else was true, he didn't want to die. He hadn't had his fill of life; his fill of kissing Satoshi. And for that matter it wasn't even fair that he hadn't had the chance to kiss Satoshi right, from the fear that if he were the one to reach out instead of Satoshi, it would've ruined everything, and the legend would have been left unfinished.

There was so much still left unfinished.

Shigeru imagined himself moving through the blackness that now felt more like silt and dust than water or paint or snow. It was heavy, but soft and warm. Suffocatingly so, like futons packed in around him. It _hurt. _And he wanted to _breathe_. Was that normal when one was dead? Was it normal to feel time and space mash together like dirt clods against fingers; like grits of earth, wedged into the space between the nail and the skin? He could feel it clinging to the inner walls of his nostrils and on his eyelashes and in the waistband of his boxers. It felt like it was everywhere.

It _was_ everywhere_, _Shigeru realized with sudden clarity. And it wasn't some abstract thing, nebulous and without form.

It was dirt.

And he was _buried_ in it.

Which explained the darkness, the weight, and the feeling like he was dead when he wasn't. He was trapped somewhere else, inside the realms of life and death like an ancient pot forgotten in the ground. And he wanted to live.

He panicked. All he could think was suddenly the word _air_! _air! air! _And he had to find it. He tried to move his arms. It was like pushing through water. The dirt was loose and ever-moving, but ever constant. His arms dragged. And soon they ached as he clawed with his fingers, scraping through the soil, searching; as he leaned into the areas with give, kicked his legs, reached out with everything in him, even with his soul -

- then at last it happened. He felt the last barrier crumbling, and the strangest sensation of lightness swallowed up the back of his upper arm and elbow as if he had been pushed back into negative space. As if he was going back into the void.

But he wasn't. It was just the stillness of air against him (_air! air!) _and he had been buried upside down in the upheaval. Chest tight enough to burn, he twisted himself around and reached out again in the place with the give, and grappled through, grabbing and pushing until his hands were free from the dirt. And then at last he lunged forward, and then his head was free and he opened his eyes and mouth to the air and the sky and to life. He opened his mouth and consumed it greedily. There was too much; he began to choke, coughing and hacking as he sputtered out the pieces of sand that had somehow slipped in-between his lips into his mouth. But the feeling of grit didn't matter, not with the air filling up his lungs, not with his lungs working because he was alive, when he _had _been dead, and now everything was made new around him.

And yet everything was familiar.

He breathed.

There was no hibiscus-scented wind carrying memories of his childhood; no gently lapping tide at his feet. No Satoshi, either. Not even the city of Alph. It was his world, exactly as he'd left it: a ruined field site with trenches that had been caved in by an earthquake.

It was also night.

Shigeru pulled himself the rest of the way from the ground, climbed atop of the loose dirt and let go of his bones and muscles, sprawling onto his back to stare at the stars. He could see his fast puffs of air taking form as they left his mouth in rapid fire. His lungs rose and fell quickly, and he coughed out more dirt. With the velvet black canopy stretched so far above him, it seemed indescribably _real. _Alph was a memory from not even a few minutes ago but it was already starting to feel like a suspended sort of space, a perilous, impossible dimension. Both far too open and far too closed. He imagined that if he were still in that place, laying with his back on the snow and staring at the cold form of his breath, he would have been able to see it float up from his mouth to the furthest reaches of the sky and rub against its edge like a helium balloon on a ceiling.

This was better. This was better, because he was alive, with nothing looming over him.

As a smile stretched across Shigeru's face, a tingling sensation spread out across his body. It wasn't just from the return of oxygen to the furthest reaches of his fingers and toes, but the thrilling relief of success. After everything, he thought with wonder, they'd made it. They'd solved the legend after all, and since he'd made it back home, Satoshi couldn't be that far away. He nearly laughed with joy, but was too tired, and settled with a smile that he could feel dimly in his cheeks.

Shigeru's hand, almost by its own volition, reached down to the side of his tool-belt. He wasn't surprised to feel that his shovel and his scraper had been lost among the debris, only hanging from plastic hooks as they had been. But his pokegear was still nestled deeply in its pocket, and this was the only thing he needed anyway. Ignoring the continued shortness of his breath, he desperately mashed his fingers into the buttons on its side, and the screen flashed on, illuminating the space around him.

Shigeru raised the phone to his ear with a shaking hand.

* * *

When Tano arrived a few minutes later, Shigeru had almost expected him to look as fuzzy as he had sounded on the receiver. Like something had been lost in him when translated between the living Alph to the crumbled ruins.

Tano was, however, more crisp than Shigeru ever remembered when his form appeared silhouetted over the ridge separating the field site and the camp. He held a flashlight before him in one hand, and its beam cast an echoing glow on his face and clothes. The untucked ends of his mustard-colored shirt flapped as he jogged down the slope. Sand and dust billowed up at his feet as he descended the uncertain terrain. Shigeru must have done something to alert Tano of where he was, but when Tano replied, calling out to him, his mouth was suddenly dry, his tongue slow to move. He was overwhelmed with the feeling of Tano's being _real_, and familiar, right down to the knit of his eyebrows and the gleam in his eyes as he approached Shigeru and took him up in a hug.

Shigeru was nearly bowled over by the relief of knowing, not just feeling but _knowing _that he was home, and that he was safe_._

He fought not to cry.

Tano finally stepped back, releasing him, and Shigeru took the chance to take a deep look at his older colleague. He seemed as if he had been woken up by Shigeru's call, and taken no consideration to anything else on the way to responding; his hair was in disarray, the skin under his eyes wrinkled and tired. It was even further heart-warming.

"I'm so glad to see you," said Shigeru honestly.

"Not as much as I am glad to see you," Tano answered with difficulty. "I didn't think I would see you again."

"It's been a week, hasn't it?"

"Yes. I assume you knew that because of your pokegear display?" Shigeru nodded. "Good, good. I'm rather amazed you still have any battery life after so long."

"It hasn't been _that_ long."

"Seven days is a long time for a pokegear to stay alive… And even longer for a person who had been buried in the ground." Tano gestured to Shigeru's body, still damp and dark with dirt. Shigeru instinctively folded his arms over his chest, guarding the appraisal.

"Don't act like it's some miracle that I'm alive, because it's not," he said. "It's more complicated than that."

"I'm not a fool," Tano answered immediately. "I _know _that. You may be a genius, Shigeru, but you're far from super-human. You had no breathing pocket and no access to water, as far as I can tell. So how did you survive - if you really _were _buried for a week? Why did it take so long for you to come back?"

Tano's voice was calm, but insistent like the lapping of warm water on a beach, the salt an irritant to the raw parts of sunburned skin. _Let it go,_ he thought desperately. "I said it was complicated. And I'm really tired-"

"Tired or not," Tano broke in, "I need to know if you're truly okay. Don't look at me like that, you _know _why I can't let this go after you made me promise to tell _no one _that I was coming here tonight, not even your own grandfather..."

"Why are you bringing him into this?"

"Because he's _here,_ on the other side of the hill, worrying about you right now. Both him and your sister came to the site two days ago to close up loose ends, if it came to that."

Shigeru felt guilt, but also the familiar twinge of a headache murmuring against the heavy bone of his skull. "That doesn't change things. I can't tell them I'm okay just yet."

"Why not? Your family thinks that you-"

"I _understood _you. Everyone thought I had died, right? Well, the truth is that I nearly did, and now I need some time to think things over. When I go back, they're going to make me talk about it, and I'm not ready._"_

"You need to talk about it eventually," reasoned Tano.

Shigeru couldn't help sighing with exasperation. He couldn't blame Tano for being logical, but it would've been easier if he had just left things alone, so Shigeru wouldn't have to keep lying to him, and making it seem as if, in the wake of a crisis, his emotions had gotten the better of his brain. The truth couldn't be further off. He had no problem _talking _about what had happened; in fact, he really couldn't _wait _to start working through the implications of his trip to the illusory Alph.

But he wasn't ready. Physically, he was about to collapse. He still felt cold, even though his clothing and hair wasn't caked with snow anymore. Digging out of the ground had been tiring, too. He had to get some sleep - and then, he needed to talk to Satoshi. They would need to stand together if their story was to have any credibility.

More important than even that, he had to make sure Satoshi understood _why, _at the very end, he had done what he had done - and why he hadn't done other things. Why he hadn't kissed him. And, _he_ had to make sure that the connection they had forged in an illusion weren't a part of the dream as well.

There was just no way to say this to Tano without sounding insane.

_"_Please, can't you just give me a little while?"

"I can give you a choice," Tano decided, voice firm. "You can deal with all of the media and the reports by yourself when you arrive, _or_ you can tell me what happened to you and I'll take care of things until you're ready to tell the world the gritty, _riveting_ details of your _miraculous_ survival."

Shigeru was tempted to complain _That's not fair, _but some latent part of his brain activated at the last moment and shut off the link between his thoughts and his tongue. He thought, rather to his displeasure, that fairness had very little to do with anything. He had been the one to contact Tano on impulse, and to make demands on the basis of their friendship - perhaps more than on logic.

He spoke these last thoughts aloud.

Tano nodded, and the beam of his flashlight wavered with the movement of his head. Shigeru tensed as he was struck with the unreasonable notion that the synchronicity was only incidental. That the truth was that Tano was standing on uneven ground; that an earthquake was making Tano's head and hand swing around. He waited, his pulse thrumming inside him, but the ground seemed mostly still. The shivering was probably coming from somewhere inside of him, this time.

The moment passed, and Shigeru had to forcibly tune himself in to focus on Tano's voice again.

"In that case," he was saying. "I'll give you tit for tat. I know your body wasn't in the ground, Shigeru. We enlisted every ground pokemon from miles around, and they searched for three solid days. So where were you?"

Shigeru wanted to tell him that he had been laying in the snow, and in the grass. He wanted to tell Tano about being born, and dying, and the infinite void of time and space, but he couldn't.

Tano was silent for long enough that Shigeru could tell he had things he was keeping to himself, too, but Shigeru had no idea what those things could be.

"Since," the old man said at last, "You don't seem ready to make any decisions right now, I'm going to make one of them for you. I'm going to go tell your grandfather that you're safe, and that you _seem_ largely unharmed."

"Is there really no way you could just let me stay with you until I'm ready? Because if my grandfather finds out, he'll tell his assistant, and then _he'll _tell everyone about it, I'm not ready to see… to see people. I mean…" Shigeru felt like an imbecile, but he couldn't think of a way to piece together his words in a way that wouldn't be misconstrued.

"Is this about Satoshi?"

Shigeru snapped his head to look at Tano so sharply that it hurt his neck. "How did you know I was talking about him?"

Tano turned around to ascend the hill, but Shigeru caught a glimpse of his face just before he was out of the flashlight's range. It was contorted with wrinkles and shadows. It looked a thousand years old.

"It was just a matter of time," he said.

* * *

Satoshi had been shaking for so long that it had grown hard to think now that the world was still.

No one was telling him what was going on, anyway, so it didn't really matter what he _thought _about anything. When Tano and a team of colleagues and medical workers had arrived to 'rescue' him mere minutes after he'd pressed the distress button on his pokegear, he had tried to lift himself up and meet them on his feet but hadn't been able to stand. It was as if his muscles had atrophied, or as if they no longer knew how to obey him. He'd tried to talk to the Nurse Joy, and to the others, and to explain to them everything the Unown had done, but the words had come off of his tongue in a jumbled mess of _Shigeru Shigeru Shigeru_, and he had been too tired to correct the assumption that he had been lost in the desert for days.

But mostly, he just wanted time to think it through himself before he was expected to explain everything.

The events between his rescue and his trip to the hospital were a blur. He tried to adjust to where he was and what he was doing, but the surroundings kept changing, and he felt like he couldn't catch up. His brain was still swarming with remembering and collecting those memories from the past month and a half into piles and patterns that made sense. The newest ones were the hardest to understand. There had been an earthquake. No, earth_quakes_. There had been the feeling of snow so cold that he thought it was going to freeze his hands in place at Shigeru's side, and break them off of his arms like dead wood. And then, there was the shaking.

Just thinking about it was making him exhausted. He couldn't even tell when he succumbed to sleep.

He didn't let himself be woken for a long time.

* * *

But it was over now, he reminded himself. He wasn't dead. He was home, and the world was no longer turning in on itself, jerking him around it ruthlessly. And his feet felt warmer than they had been for _days_, and perhaps because he was lying on a bed, in air cooler, lighter, and crisper than he had known for weeks. Dimly, he could hear a whir; a familiar sound of air being sucked in and sent out by a climate machine against the wall.

He let out a lazy yawn that had halfway made itself into a contented sigh.

_"Pika…?"_

Awareness rushed into him. "Pikachu?" he asked, his voice breaking on the final syllable. His hand reached out, and he had only just lifted his palm before his pokemon was burying its face into it with joy, crying out it's name - crying out_ his_ name. He could feel the tickle of short, smooth fur and whiskers against his fingers. The pokemon bound up his chest and grabbed his face in his paws. _"Pika pika piiiii," _it continued.  
Satoshi was just about to reach for it with his free hand when he was interrupted by a voice that he knew like his very life.

"Satoshi!" cried his mother. "You're awake!"

"Mom…?"

Satoshi strained to see her face, and had barely made out the essentials of her expression when she let out a little cry and dived to embrace him. For a second, it was difficult to breathe. And then he was overwhelmed by the feeling of her grabbing hold of him with her soft, and surprisingly little hands, and gripping onto him fiercely.

"Satoshi, I'm so happy!" she said. "You worried me so much! But I'm so happy that you're all right!"

_"Pika pika pika!"_

He turned his head and looked at Pikachu, whom had moved to make way for his mother but was still a warm weight at his side, its head and arms laying upon his chest. It was staring at him with a pair of eyes as full of joy and worry as his mother's had been, and he felt his throat tighten with sudden emotion. Hardly aware of what he was doing, he found himself crushing the creature against himself and his mother in an awkward, one-armed embrace.

He felt so emotional. His mother, his Pikachu were emotional, too. But for a moment, he had no idea why. He just let himself drown in the feeling. It was somehow cathartic, like being freed.

At last his mother released him. When she stepped back, it gave Satoshi the opportunity to set his eyes on his mother's face. Little by little her features were becoming clear through his sleepy veil. She was as neat and well kept as ever, though there were dark bags under her eyes and wrinkles in her clothes. They had the suspicious crease that came from uncomfortable sleep - a case he knew too well. He turned his glance away from her, uncomfortable to see her looking so unlike herself when he was the cause. Absently, he let his eyes scour the various apparatuses of the hospital room and the stiff, white linen of his bed-sheets. There wasn't a speck of sand in sight.

A nurse came into the room, and approached him with a chart, scribbling furiously. He wished she would tell _him _what was going on at least, rather than writing it down somewhere he couldn't see, and staying totally silent.

His mother must have sensed something was wrong, because she pulled aside her Clefairy-embroidered handkerchief from her eyes long enough to explain what she knew.

"They found you last night. You had slight malnutrition, mild dehydration, and a moderate case of hypothermia when you came in. It's not quite the normal record for a person who has been buried alive, dear…"

"I guess not," said Satoshi, his voice coming out thick with sleep. He wasn't really sure what he was saying.

"You were just sleeping. Dreaming," she told him. Satoshi had to admit, that seemed right - it felt as if he was waking up from a dream.

"That's how come I'm here," she continued, "and not in the waiting room. I had been reading, but you started crying out for someone in your sleep. Nurse Joy said she would take care of it, but I had to come! You nearly tore out the wires from your arms..."

Satoshi looked down and saw his arm linked to the I.V. "They put this in while I slept?" he asked, feeling uncertain about what that could mean. "How long was I out? I mean, was I…in a coma?"

"Of course not," his mother reassured him quickly. "You came in just last night, after all. Though they think you might have been in... ah, psychological shock."

Satoshi's head was swimming and he sought out Pikachu for comfort. "Shock?" he asked, patting his pokemon's head. "But I didn't…"

"You didn't talk to anyone at length at all, apparently. You just showed up last night, asked a few questions but otherwise were just really quiet. Didn't even recognize me. You just kept asking for… Well, Ookido-sensei said that after the _accident_, it's only natural. He says it happens to people a lot after a near-death situation."

"You were talking to him?" he asked, though sometimes he had to admit it was really a question of when was she _not _talking to him.

"We both arrived this morning. It was the soonest we could make it after we found out about the accident..."

"The accident," Satoshi repeated.

"Yes, that." His mother looked terribly silent for a moment. "I can't believe you were in the ground for so long without us knowing; we did a big sweep of the area, searching for survivors, and for you, for you both, and-"

"Mom, you've got it all wrong. I wasn't in the ground," Satoshi told her in confusion.

Her handkerchief dropped from her face. "What?" she asked, kneading it in her hands nervously.

"Stay awake," she told him as she moved to the door. "I'm going to get everyone. They've been so worried about you since the earthquake."

Satoshi didn't know why, exactly or even vaguely, that it was the mention of an earthquake to break through his daze at last.

"An earthquake," he said to himself. Yes, that was it! He was in a hospital because there had been an earthquake after he'd seen Shigeru and… And _then_, now he remembered, he'd died, or something like it; and he'd been transported to the past with Shigeru and lived in the ancient city of Alph and there was the legend and oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

"Wait!" he cried at his mother as she turned away.

She was back at the bed instantly. The words tumbled from his lips. "The people waiting; they're Kenji and Professor Oak and Shigeru, too, right? Shigeru's there too, right?"

His mother's expression broke, and she wrung her hands. "Well, he - he -"

Any feeling of peace that had been gathering inside of Satoshi's chest was squashed out immediately. He tried to keep his voice calm, even though he could swear that the monitor beside him confirmed a spike in his heartbeat.

"Shigeru," he repeated. "How is he? Tell me, tell me that he's-"

"You're talking about Shigeru Ookido?" The nurse had been pressing buttons on a long keyboard, but paused at last to look up at her patient. Her candy-red lips twisted with sympathy. "I'm… I'm sorry they didn't tell you," she said.

Satoshi's eyes darted from her to his mother. "What does _that _mean?"

"Pika pika," said his pokemon cautiously. His mother just unfolded her Clefairy handkerchief. And refolded it.

"Satoshi, the reason that Ookido-sensei came here… is about Shigeru. He was lost in the earthquake, too."

"What?" asked Satoshi. He tried to clear his mind, to focus it; to catch his breath and think - but ended up just letting out a desperate moan of distress instead. "No, that can't be right," he said, his voice wavering, "He should have come back _with_ me."

"Come _back?_" his mother queried, but he had already closed his eyes, trying to remember the details of what had happened after their lips had touched, but it didn't work. It was like he was trying to call back images from a dream.

Opening his eyes again, it was obvious that nothing had changed in the room. Objectively. But the air-conditioning was suddenly chilling; the fluorescent lights above him, stagnating. Satoshi hated it all irrationally. He'd really _liked_ waking up to the heat of the island, the touch of the sun. Not to this, but the scratch of tunics brushing against his skin, and Shigeru beside him. He wanted to put his hands in a pile of clay and build something until he lost himself in it. He wanted to lose himself with Shigeru.

But Shigeru wasn't _lost. _Satoshi just knew it. They'd fulfilled the legend, and then _he'd _come home, so it only made sense that Shigeru had as well.

"I just need to find him," Satoshi murmured, struggling to lift himself up off his bed. "Get off, Pikachu - Mom, you have to tell them to let me out - and take me to him-"

"Daisy! Help me stop him!" The nurse quickly answered his mother's summons. By the time that both women were holding down his arms, he knew there was little hope for escape. Even Pikachu was doing its part, too, little paws pushing furiously against his chest. Satoshi was unimpressed.

"Why aren't you guys going to help me?" he complained.

"Your body has been under a great deal of stress," the nurse told him sternly. "You shouldn't push yourself-"

"You guys don't _get _it. I'm fine!"

"You were buried alive for three days. How could you possibly be fine?" his mother demanded.

"I was buried alive for barely thirty seconds!" Satoshi argued back fervently. "There was just a foot or so of sand over me on the dune, that's all! I can't explain it now, but I wasn't _there _for the rest of the time! I was somewhere else, okay? And I'm totally fine. I just need to find Shigeru!"

That being said, he lashed out against the nurse, and successfully broke free of her soft grip, but then his mother caught him down again, her own hands surprisingly strong.

"No, you don't," she said, her voice tight. "I know you're his friend, but you need to put your health as a higher priority!"

The nurse put in, from his other side, "There is no question that you have undergone some sort of a trauma and are not yet fully recovered. You were too dazed to even walk when we first found you."

Satoshi had to admit that she had a point. Still, "What are you going to do about Shigeru?" he returned. "I _know _he's out there. And if he's in trouble, if he's like I was…"

"People are searching for him," said the nurse, her voice strangely affected, "but I'm not letting you off this bed rest until it's clear that you're not going to slip away from us again."

"Can't you just enjoy the fact that you're alive?" his mother asked him.

"Don't say it like you mean that I'm alive and Shigeru is dead because he _isn't!_" Satoshi shouted angrily.

Speaking the words had been like unplugging the stopper from a drain, and it funneled the strength out of him. He collapsed backward onto his bed and shut his eyes tightly, wishing he could bury himself under the sheets or do something more.

Eventually, the nurse batted his mother away, telling her that all her tests showed that Satoshi would be fine, but that he needed time to rest. Surprisingly, though, she said nothing about Pikachu, and let him stay at Satoshi's side.

He listened to the tap-tap of the nurse's rubber-soled shoes as she walked the room, checking the equipment one final time. And then she, too, left with a sympathetic parting glance, and let the door to his room slowly shut behind her. It had barely closed before Satoshi let out a big sigh of relief, allowing his defenses to drop. With the draft from the hallways absent, and with nothing to distract him but Pikachu, the air in the room simply felt strange. The hospital room had no windows; the shelves lacked even the bouquets of flowers like he always saw in soap operas. It was just another white-walled space filled with the static of machines.

Satoshi didn't mind as much as he thought he should have. In a way, he felt too tired to be anything but ambivalent, even if he was stuck in bed. Maybe his mom and the nurse were right; maybe he really was a little sick. Or maybe it was just impossible to feel good, not knowing where Shigeru was and if he was okay.

He shifted downward, burrowing himself into his sheets. The top cover was cool; the closer ones warm and starchy but at least clean. Pikachu curled up against him, its nose pressed tightly against the juncture of his neck and collarbone. It was a comfortable, familiar weight. Satoshi let his eyelids fall over his eyes, and in a little time, the world filled up with darkness again.


	26. Chapter 26

Quite sorry, everyone but I had to make a minor back-edit for story thread maintenance. For your reference: the site of the Ruins of Alph is only half a day's distance by vehicle from the nearest outlying field site (B).

Thanks for waiting diligently on this update. Look how long it is! I decided to put two chapters into one because, well, it just felt right this way. The next, and final chapter, will be coming right on this one's heels. Reviews are love.

* * *

**In Ruins**

Chapter 26

* * *

The huddle of the camp's tents and temporary shelters were still a few minutes off when Tano and Shigeru crested the hill above the dig site. With the exception of the small bulb over Tano's doorway, everything was shadowy in the dim moonlight, reminiscent of a suspended set in the middle of a dream. It occurred to Shigeru that his 'home' was tucked inside that small community somewhere, just as he'd left it. There probably wasn't even any dust on his samples. There would certainly have been no change to the springs inside his mattress, to the firmness of his pillows, or to the even texture of his sheets in his single week of absence. Even so, he felt gripped by the senseless need to _check_, to go home and review each fragment of his life piece by piece - to make sure that it was all real, that it was really a seamless whole, and that the ancient and illusory city of Alph wasn't about to barrel back onto him at the smallest provocation.

He was so taken by the thought that he briefly found it difficult to move. But Tano's hand took his arm and steered him to the outskirts of town.

The front door to Tano's building was raised up several feet of steps on what could have only been hastily laid concrete. The door was tightly sealed, and he had to give it a firm shove to unstick the latch. Tano swept in and flicked the lights on, then walked across the long, narrow room to the sink beside his cot. Shigeru came inside the one-room structure quickly after him and automatically bent down to remove his shoes in the doorway. He felt foolish immediately. The ritual wouldn't really make much difference. That he would be guilty of dirtying Tano's house was a forgone conclusion; he was still so dirty from his self-exhuming that a little bit more dirt and sand entering the room from his shoes could hardly matter.

Tano meanwhile turned on the faucet and splashed some water in his face. Shigeru stepped out of his shoes and watched him with more interest than the task deserved. The scene felt so normal that it nearly hurt.

"You can use whatever you need," Tano said calmly as he finished and blotted his old, spotted skin with a hand towel. "You know where everything is; this place has hardly changed since you were here last. You can sleep on the sofa. We'll talk in the morning."

"The morning?" Shigeru started. "But I thought you wanted answers right away."

"We'll take care of it first thing in the morning," repeated Tano.

Shigeru couldn't hide his bewilderment. What had he missed? What could explain for Tano swinging from not being willing to take 'no' for an answer to _this_?

"I thought we were going to see my grandfather."

"Yes, I said we'd see him, and we will so, let me reiterate, _first thing in the morning, _and…" Tano cut himself off. "Oh, did you think that I was going to inform your grandfather about your whereabouts tonight?"

"What else was I supposed to think? You were fighting for it so hard."

"I was. But I _do_ know what your grandfather is like," Shigeru could _hear_ Tano's unspoken 'and I know very well what _you _are like, too.' The man continued, "He's rather thorough, isn't he?"

"That's one word for it," Shigeru agreed hesitantly. "What are you getting at?"

"He's one of the greatest Pokemon researchers in the world for a great reason, but he is just a bit less wise about people. It seems to me that once he finds out that you are alive, he will come over immediately and barrage you with questions, spending untold hours putting you through a series of physical and mental tests designed to assure your total healthiness…. Probably at the risk of remembering that you are human and need to sleep."

When Shigeru failed to hold back a snort, Tano graciously ignored it, concluding, "It seemed to me that you could hold out on speaking with him until the morning for that reason alone, much less for the other reason that you are keeping to your chest, which keeps you from wanting to speak with anyone at all."

"Thank you, Tano," Shigeru said sincerely. "Now stop sounding so all-knowing. It's terrifying."

Tano nodded congenially. "I've sent your grandfather an email to come over here straight away, no questions asked. The message is under instructions to be delivered as soon as he turns his phone back on, which should be no sooner than tomorrow morning."

"Sounds fine." Shigeru trudged across the room. The taut wire that had been holding him upright and aware was quickly losing its salience, and he could feel his body drooping. Even his senses were beginning to feel like they were actively laboring to continue their function. He was rather amazed that he still knew how to move at all.

"Tano," he gathered his thoughts. "I'm about to pass out. If anything happens…"

"I'll take care of it. Just get some rest."

After a few long seconds, Shigeru settled down on the sofa opposite of Tano's desk and workbench. It was a dark, plush green, with a texture like old velvet. He leaned his head back against the cheap wall panels, and the plastic gave a little, denting in. He thought about the thick limestone walls of the buildings in Alph, how they were cold, gritty and unyielding. It felt like there should have been some meaning in the difference, some feeling that was supposed to register as he thought about his abruptly ended adventure - regret, maybe? Nostalgia? A sort of 'missing'? But he couldn't quite put any substance into the impressions he had of his own feelings. Everything was swimming in his head as the exhaustion rushed back to him like water from behind a dam.

He drifted off before he knew he'd shut his eyes.

Shigeru awoke to the warm, rich smell of breakfast and the clatter of kitchen utensils scraping against the bottom of a pan. He wasn't even fully conscious, but his stomach seemed to have been working for some time already, as it was doing flips of anticipatory celebration for the meal. How long had it been since there had been breakfast _provided _for him? A week? And since when had Satoshi become such a good cook?

"Hey, what's that amazing smell…?" he asked groggily.

"Pancakes. Are you hungry?" came Tano's voice.

Shigeru shot up.

An acrylic blanket was tangled up around his knees. Beyond it sat all the pieces of furniture and modernity that composed his colleague's building at the researcher's camp outside of Alph, and the scene was completed by the presence of the man, flesh and bone in khaki-colored cargo pants and a tucked-in collared shirt. This at least was familiar to Shigeru. Tano had a greased plastic spatula in his hand. A large, battered black-iron skillet sat on the hot plate strapped to the counter in front of him, and on the hot, steaming surface two massive puddles of frothy and yellow batter sizzled. Both Tano and the stove were lit by a single light bulb above the sink, but otherwise, the room was dark.

"Are you hungry?" Tano repeated.

"Yeah. Dead hungry," said Shigeru. He self-consciously patted down his hair as he sat up and struggled to not just take in, but to analyze, his surroundings. "What time is it?"

"4:45. a.m." came his reply. "Sunrise is in half a hour."

"And you're making pancakes at 4:45 a.m. because…?"

"Because you need to eat them before it's light out and everyone wakes up. We have quite a bit of road ahead of us today."

Shigeru glanced out the window above the couch. Using the back of his hand, he pulled aside the plastic blinds to see what was out in the desert. He might as well have not; there was nothing to see beyond the window pane but rolling darkness. There weren't roads running out of Alph, not in the proper sense of the word 'road'; the constantly shifting dunes made the maintenance of any solid structure impossible for longer than a few days. And yet, when he squinted, Shigeru could almost _feel _the road rolling out in front of him, and he didn't need light to see them or know what they meant. Shigeru thought about Tano's philosophy for a moment longer. _There really is quite a bit of road, _he thought to himself. There were an almost overwhelming number of choices that he needed to make, and fast. He had to decide what to tell, who to tell, and how to back it up… His brain began to soak itself in theories that longed to be shuffled and discarded in a frenzy of thoughtful play.

But it was too early to think. And this wasn't a familiar morning for him, either; not the least because Satoshi was no longer experiencing it with him. He stared into the eyes of his reflection, and wondered if they'd ever looked so dark and tired in his entire life.

"I think I need a shower," he spoke aloud, and turned to Tano.

He was busy slipping the first of the two pancakes, now both drenched with amber syrup, from the spatula to a white paper plate. "I'd be quite grateful if you showered," Tano answered amiably. "Are you feeling better?"

Shigeru couldn't bring himself to answer. Instead, he slid himself around the couch and touched the balls of his feet to the ground, then waited, letting them dangle momentarily before he placed his whole foot down like he were experimenting with it. The floor was smooth, and firm. Not about to slip away like the fragments of a dream like he'd half-expected it to.

"Tano?" he queried. The researcher looked up expectantly, so Shigeru continued, "Last night, you found me near the trenches, right?"

Tano put the spatula into the sink with a careful motion. "Yes," he said. "You weren't… acting like yourself."

Shigeru scoffed. "I wasn't that strange."

"You were acting like you were going to run away at the slightest provocation."

"Well, that's because I…" Shigeru refrained from saying that it was because he had been _acting_. He had a lurching feeling that maybe he'd only been acting that he was acting, that he'd been trapped in a role within a role. That after he'd been born again, he'd actually felt the need to cry, and hadn't cared who'd heard. But that was stupid. "I've been through a lot in the past few months," he said instead.

"Week," Tano corrected him.

"_Months_."

Tano turned back to his pancakes, but not without a wry grin which Shigeru felt to be conspicuously out of place. "I'm not trying to imply that I don't believe you when you say that it was months," he said. "But until you're willing to tell that story to anyone besides me, you need to be a more convincing liar."

"What story?" Shigeru challenged him.

"Come on, now. Aren't I right in guessing that the Unown took you somewhere, _à la__ the Professors Hale_?"

Shigeru felt his stomach twist inside his chest. It felt like he'd been punched.

"I- I- How did you-" he stuttered.

"Don't act like I shouldn't have guessed. I wasn't born yesterday," said Tano. "In fact, I'm prehistoric, as you would say. Practically paleolithic."

"Cretaceous," Shigeru disagreed, then shook his head as if that could clear it. "I just… I can't believe you were able to… to guess that the Unown were behind my disappearance. Is that why you didn't immediately tell everyone about me? Because you already knew what was going on?"

"Oh, I didn't know anything for certain until you confirmed it."

"Then why…"

"I did it because I respected your decision, actually." Tano brought the two plates over, one in each hand, and set one down on the couch next to Shigeru. He then sat down across from Shigeru at his well-organized desk, plate on a place mat in front of him with the utmost civility. Shigeru didn't care about civility. He had barely gotten a whiff of the food before he dug into it heartily. He wasn't sure how long it had been since he'd eaten, but it was almost too glorious that his first meal back be maple syrup and nutmeg pancakes. They were almost impossibly delicious.

"This is seriously too good," he said aloud. "Are you trying to butter me up for something?"

Tano chuckled and shook his head. "Like I said, the first thing we are going to do is tell your grandfather that you are safe. The rest, after that, is up to you."

Shigeru gulped down another piece, spewing between chews. "Didn't you also want me to tell you the story," he swallowed a bit, "…maybe even _first_? That's what you said I'd have to do last night."

"Of course, and you'll have your chance. We do have a long car trip ahead of us."

Shigeru nearly dropped his fork. He adjusted the paper plate on his thigh, asking, "Car trip?"

"Well, yes," Tano answered matter-of-factly. "Didn't I tell you that we he had a long trip ahead of us?"

"You said there was a lot of road."

"Same difference."

"It's _not_!" he protested. "I thought you were speaking metaphorically!"

Tano looked at Shigeru with the clinical expression of a doctor trying to determine if his patient had been concussed.

"Well, the point is, I can't leave," Shigeru broke out at last. His pancakes forgotten, he racked his brain for reasons that he give Tano to prevent them from leaving that didn't even involve Satoshi, and was pleased that a convincing one came up fairly quickly. "My grandfather is on-site," he said, "So in order to meet with him we have to stay here."

"You're mistaken on that point, I'm afraid," said Tano.

"What?"

"Your grandfather _was _on camp-site. Unfortunately, he isn't here any longer."

Shigeru wondered if it was appropriate to feel a sense of foreboding as he opened his mouth to speak. "Where," he asked deliberately, "did he _go_?"

Tano settled himself on his swivel chair, leaning back and then forward again. It took a while for him to prepare his response. "You didn't wake up in the commotion last night," he began at last, "but about thirty minutes after you fell asleep, your grandfather and sister suddenly left us and took off to visit outlying site B."

_"They did what!" _Shigeru barked. This time his fork did hit the paper plate and he didn't care that the remainder of his entire meal fell off of where it sat on his leg and fell to the ground in a pool of syrup. "You just let my family pick up and go off in the middle of the night to a site flung halfway across the desert, when you _knew_ I needed to talk to them?"

Tano swallowed a mouthful quickly. "I would've woken you, but if we were to show up at that time it would've only caused more questions-"

"- _But_-"

"- and you specifically said you didn't _want _to deal with questions," Tano reminded him.

"I would've preferred that to just letting them leave, because now I have to leave too! I can't _do_ that!" Shigeru turned desperate. "I can't go! I have to stay here and_ find Satoshi_!"

"You don't have to do anything because he's already been found. That's what the commotion was all _about._"

"They found him!" He had a moment of elation that quickly swung around. "And you didn't tell me?"

"Calm down," Tano placated. But Shigeru was now further from calm than he had ever been in perhaps his entire life. He leapt to his feet, his hands clutching at nothing as he absorbed the bad news around him.

His voice rose by it's own accord as he began to shout. "Satoshi was_ here_ and safe and you didn't even let him _see_ me?"

"Keep your voice down!" Tano said sharply, also getting up. "Or else everyone in this whole campsite will hear you and wake up. We can discuss this in the car."

"No! No, we can't!" he snapped. "Don't you treat me like a child!"

"Then don't act like one."

"You don't know what's going on!" Shigeru threw his hands in the air, the rage burning in his throat, and in every limb, every square inch of skin in his possession, "You don't know what you've just done! Now Satoshi's gone and it's going to be too late! You're ruining everything!"

"Am I, Shigeru?" Tano asked, voice turning a shade toward cold. "You don't have your cards as close to your chest as you think you do. Look at me, boy - There are things I _know_."

Shigeru fell silent. Tano let the words hang before him before bending over to pick up Shigeru's plate with effort. He made a little grunt of effort as he continued, "And besides that, Satoshi wasn't - he wasn't quite right when they found him. That's why they're taking him to the temp hospital outside the desert as we speak. Do you see, now, why your grandfather and sister went after him? Do you see why we are also going after _them?_"

"We could have just gone with them!"

"Shigeru, you're not acting like yourself. You're not being reasonable about this."

At the words, Shigeru felt his brain careening to a halt. Embarrassment and indignation warred with equal strength, and he closed his eyes, fighting to compose himself. The number of times he had been called unreasonable were few enough to count on one hand, and that was how he liked it. He was a scientist; he _lived _off of facts and reasons. What was he missing? Where was he failing to see reason in this picture?

Breathing took incredible effort.

Tano continued, "Like I was saying, it won't matter if you see him just a few hours later than you would have otherwise."

"How," Shigeru groped at calm, _reasonable _words, "Can you say that?"

"Because he'll live. He was just in shock, it seemed." Some of the burden lightened, and Shigeru found in himself the tenacity to hazard a glance at Tano's face. It was easier to gauge the man's expression than he'd expected: his face was openly penitent as he spoke. "I didn't mean to hurt you by doing this, but surely you understand that I felt holding my promise to you was more important than consoling a delirious young man by telling him where you were. And you needed your sleep. You needed to be in a state where you were ready to see him, too. I put off telling your grandfather that you were alive, so why are you surprised that I put off telling you that another loved one was alive? All that being said, it's done. Let us move forward."

"Okay," Shigeru answered. His voice sounded desperate in spite of his best efforts, but it was the best that he could do. "We're going to him _now_, right?"

"Right," confirmed Tano.

"Then it's okay."

"Glad to hear it." Tano crossed the room, and dumped the plate and a tablespoon worth of syrup into a trashcan. "But I still think you should shower before we leave. I'll let you dirty my sofa, but not the Jeep. It's a rental."

* * *

Tano's rented Jeep sped through the dunes. The wavering and inconstant sand mountains stood shrouded in massive shadow, their edges only marked by white ribbons of moonlight exposing ridges sculpted by wind. Although beautiful, the eerie effect was fading quickly, and Shigeru was glad for it. As the Jeep crested each hill before powering down again with a storm of sand clouding behind it, Shigeru could see a change breaking out over the expanse. The horizon was creeping outward. They were growing closer to the hospital with every second. Dawn was on its way.

Shigeru watched the landscape calmly as Tano drove, governed by only a navigation system and a compass. The shower had gone a long way to calming him, perhaps more than Tano had intended, though perhaps not. As Shigeru had slipped into the routine of bathing, he'd been reminded of the long hours spent under bamboo pipes with Satoshi, slowly scraping away the grime of a long day's work. That time was already starting to feel like a dream, even though it hadn't been more than half a day since the snow had given way to sand and he had come home. In a way, Shigeru had felt that by removing the dirt on his body, he'd been cleaning off the last remains of his time in Alph. This idea only cemented when he'd turned off the shower and the steam cleared out of the room. It had nearly hurt with a physical pain when he'd had to face the fact that Satoshi wasn't cleaning himself somewhere close by and that he wasn't there at all.

Standing in that lonely bathroom, he had began to think of Satoshi. It hurt to imagine him in a hospital somewhere, _also_ alone and trapped inside walls, and he wondered to himself how he was going to make things right. How was he going to convince Satoshi that yes, he'd been in Alph too, and that he really loved him and that he hadn't just kissed him because he had to, but that he'd really wanted to? Those were bound to be the hardest questions he'd have to answer first. There were, of course, going to be more questions from all sorts of directions. Maybe these questions were more challenging: How were they going to face the world? How could they explain what had happened without sounding insane? Shigeru didn't know how to answer these questions. After all, besides the earthquake, there had been nothing to mark any manifestations of the Unown's power as far as he knew. Was it really just going to be his words against the world's? He could imagine how well it would go over - "_Hello, my name is Shigeru Ookido, and I've just spent the last two months (that's seven days, to you) playing the victims of an Unown matchmaking scheme" - _in other words, it wouldn't go well at all. In an unreal and perfect world, maybe he and Satoshi could become the subject of spectacle for having had such an amazing, terrifying adventure. But realistically? In a best case scenario, he couldn't imagine ever being respected again in academic circles after making such a preposterous claim. In a worst scenario, both he and Satoshi could end up in a nut hospital, or at the very least unable to hold down jobs for the rest of their lives.

And as these possibilities rolled around in his brain, he had begun to look around himself in terror.

Condensation fogged the mirror, the glass cabinet. The air was still thick with mist. Nothing was _clear_. He could feel a distant pounding in his head as a tension headache began swelling up.

What am I doing here? he wondered. He felt his hands shaking as he'd fumbled with the latch for the glass cabinet, hoping to find a comb and groom himself in a soothing ritual.

He didn't find a comb inside, but he did find something else. And seeing it, all of his worry fell to pieces_._

"Where did you find it?" he asked Tano abruptly. They hadn't been driving for too long, but they had been quiet the whole time, lost in their own thoughts. The older man looked at Shigeru askance, and his fingers drummed on top of the shift gear that sat between them for a moment. The age spots on the back of his palm, Shigeru thought suddenly, seemed to be the same in both this world and in the ancient city of Alph.

"Tano," Shigeru called him to attention.

"Sorry, but I'm not sure what you're talking about," Tano answered. "Where did I find what?"

"That piece of pottery in your bathroom. Where did it come from?"

A smirk pulled at the corner of Tano's lips, but still he seemed more preoccupied with the car than the conversation, and spent a second adjusting his rearview mirror - even though no one was behind them for dozens of kilometers. "Ah, you saw that," he said.

"I couldn't have missed it. It was the only item on the top shelf of that cabinet. Did you put it there for me to see?"

Tano chuckled. "That would be silly."

"I didn't ask if it was strange. I'm asking if you did it for me."

"Shigeru," he said, his eyes focused straight ahead, "You've seen it before. It's been tucked away on the top shelf of my bathroom cabinet ever since I found it buried in a trench 5 years ago."

"But it has my name on it," Shigeru insisted.

"Yes, it does."

The Jeep crested the dune at that moment, and both he and Tano were jostled as it fishtailed for a brief, essential second. Tano corrected the vehicle just in time, and they spun out the tires before hurtling into the descent. Heart pounding in his chest, Shigeru's attention turned out the front window. And his eyes caught the first sight of the sun topping the peaks of mountains on the horizon.

It burned into his eyes, like carvings on a plate. Illuminating everything.

"Shigeru," said Tano. "Your leg. I noticed it hasn't been causing you any problems today."

"No, it hasn't."

They continued on down the sandy bank in silence for nearly a minute. Then, unexpectedly, Shigeru felt the weight of words heavy on his tongue, begging for release.

He let it go.

He began to speak.

* * *

"What's that?" said Tano sharply, hitting the brakes on his car and jolting Shigeru back into wakefulness.

Shigeru turned from the window he'd been dozing on and peered into the distance in front of them. It had been easily two or three hours since he had finished the story about Alph, and he had spent most of that time sleeping off his exhaustion. _What was what? _He wondered, and pulled down his sunglasses over his eyes, trying to see. The landscape, which had seemed austere enough to be lonely at the night, now seemed to be almost psychedelic, the vivid canvas of sky and sand taking turns to wave and melt in the heat. With such a backdrop, it took several seconds before Shigeru realized that there was in fact something in the near distance. It was the blotch of a car, and a small figure beside it.

"Do you think that's a man?" he suggested.

"I do. And forgive me for saying this, but there's only one person in the world who that could be," said Tano.

Shigeru knew that he was right; after all, the universe _did _seem to have it in for him lately. "My grandfather," he said sullenly.

"Are you ready to tell him everything you told me?" asked Tano.

"I'll have to eventually."

"You don't have to sound so resigned about it."

It was hardly a heart-to-heart encouragement, especially as they were both wearing shades, but Shigeru appreciated Tano's effort all the same.

"What I want to know is why he's out there alone, anyway," Shigeru said. He didn't know why he felt like sharing the thought; to be honest, he could already think of too many explanations that would make sense only in his grandfather's considerably eccentric case. But it was still important.

Not a minute passed before the car was upon them.

Tano shifted down gear until they pulled up to the other vehicle at the speed of a mere crawl. Sand pillared out behind the spinning tires, but the winds were favorable and the clouds of sand didn't catch up with them, nor did they expand enough to becoming obscuring. Not that there was much to see anyway; when they rolled up, Tano and Shigeru were met with the back side, not the front, of a man in a Hawaiian shirt and a wide-brimmed straw sunhat. He was bent over halfway into the back-seat of the car, apparently trying to dig something out of a bag. Tano shifted slowly into park, and rolled down the window. The engine rumbled hesitantly in the background.

"Hello there," greeted Tano pleasantly.

"Hello there!" came what was unmistakably his grandfather's voice, though a bit muffled. "I'm just looking for my sunglasses, be around to see you in a moment! …Can't imagine how I could do without them! Or sunscreen for that matter."

Shigeru's grandfather, stubble gritty as always, had a wide grin. His teeth were as white as his hair (that is to say, they were both a bit off-color in places). His skin was flushed and tan. His voice was cheerful. All in all, he was very much himself. The man wasn't three hundred pounds overweight and covered in tattoos, nor was he in a long white lab-coat that he had even sometimes been caught wearing to sleep. At that moment, Shigeru thought to himself he would have preferred any of the more obscene alternatives than to this, in which his only grandfather, his only parental figure in the entire world, was dressed and smiling like a retired man on vacation, with all the lightness of a life unburdened.

Shigeru slid down in his seat as far as he could.

"I'm quite glad you stopped!" his grandfather said brightly to Tano, who insisted it was no problem. "Nonsense!" He turned and shut the car door behind himself, adding, "I've had a bad string of luck this morning, and I almost feared you were a pokemon coming for me! Ah, that is to say… Who are you?"

"It's Yamatoshi. And next to me is -"

"_Yamatoshi Tano_!" the jovial tone shifted to one of a much simple, but more thorough-seeming gladness. "I thought I knew your voice. What are you doing away from camp?"

Tano glanced at Shigeru, and it was obvious that the action was meant to suggest that Shigeru speak up and declare his presence. But he shook his head sharply in the negative, refusing. He had been resigned to speak with his grandfather and deal with playing three hundred questions, but he was not resigned for this. No, he thought to himself angrily, why bother telling his grandfather that he was there when the man was obviously quite happy otherwise? Why bother him when he obviously didn't seem to care that his grandson was dead?

"I'm on my way to Outlying Site B," answered Tano, meanwhile. "Do you need a lift?"

The world's greatest pokemon researcher nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, and thank you! A nasty Trapinch caught my tire this morning! I was part of a caravan so I let everyone else go ahead while I waited for them to come back. I was just meaning to answer your mail and tell you about the unfortunate business…"

Shigeru watched his grandfather slam the car door shut and walk in approach to the car. He folded his arms, wishing he could just stay invisible in the seat for the rest of the trip.

Tano leaned over him again, speaking out the open window. "You should be more careful, Yukinari. You could have died of heat exhaustion if you'd stayed outside much longer. This isn't a friendly desert," said Tano from Shigeru's opposite side. But now his grandfather was close enough that in spite of the blindingly bright sun, he could _surely _make out that Tano was on the far side, the driver's seat, and that someone else was in the front seat, and-

"I had to let the others go ahead, and someone had to stay behind who wasn't… Oh, now who's that with you?" his voice rose predictably as he looked at Shigeru. "I can't see _anything _in this blasted sun!"

Shigeru gave in to the inevitable and moved into his grandfather's field of sight.

"It's me," he said, sourly. "Your grandson."

His grandfather's smile froze on his face.

And then, unexpectedly, his chin wobbled, and he began to weep.

* * *

Satoshi stood in front of the hospital reception desk, absently rubbed the bandage firmly affixed to the inside of his elbow. They'd taken the IV out just thirty minutes ago, and let him get out of bed. It was strange how the simple adjustment had helped him to feel less like he'd been the victim of something terrible and more as if - thanks to his mother's stern lecturing - he'd just been caught getting into trouble.

"…and don't you ever worry me like that again," she was saying. "No more getting trapped in giant mounds of earth, do you hear me young man?"

Satoshi nodded perfunctorily. He knew he should be listening to her more than half-heartedly, but what did it matter? He wasn't young, he _hadn't _been breaking any rules, and getting trapped in giant mounds of earth really had nothing to do with the problems he'd been having lately. Plus, he was the same height as her when she wore heels these days. She couldn't stop him, and she couldn't stop anything from happening, so what was the point of pretending that she could?

"Mom," he suggested with a hint of impatience, "Don't you think you should be taking care of all that hospital paperwork?"

"Oh! I suppose - I suppose I should." She seemed to weigh the statement and find it valid. But even as she picked up the pen on the counter, she still made time for one last admonishment to him. "Just you wait, mister. You haven't heard the end of this. I'm going to have you doing chores for a week!"

"Okay mom," Satoshi said, striking for a tone between amiable and indifferent. She accepted it, at least for the moment, and began to work her pen across the top-laying form animatedly. Her bangs fell across her face, and she swiped at them momentarily before giving up - she was too wrapped up in her task to care, to preoccupied with speed and thoroughness. Satoshi could tell, in that moment, how much she really loved him. Even if it was just the fact that she cared, that had to mean something, didn't it? Satoshi took back his earlier thoughts, feeling slightly abashed. He was really lucky to have her as his mom.

He swiped a peppermint from a silver tray on the counter-top, and sucked on it while watching the people gathered in the waiting room. Nearly half of the waiting people seemed to have recognized him by this point and a few were staring back at him, some surreptitiously and others more blatantly. Did the world even know that he'd gone missing? he wondered. It was almost a moot point because even if they hadn't, the fact that he'd just been sighted in a hospital probably meant that it was only a matter of time until the news reporters found him.

"Hey, mom," he said, turning away from the increasingly curious faces, "Do you mind if I step outside for a second? I think Pikachu needs to get out and have some fresh air."

"Pika pi?" asked Pikachu, startled from its wandering around his feet.

Satoshi gave the pokemon what he hoped was a significant look.

"Okay, dear," said his mother. She didn't look up from the papers. "Don't go too far."

"Thanks. It's just a deck, I think. Let's get out of here, buddy." He bent and offered his arm to Pikachu. The pokemon ambled up to him with a pleasant buzz of static at its cheeks, looking as if it were preparing to climb up his shoulder when it paused a short distance away from his hand. It flicked its ears intently at an unseen stimuli and then, abruptly, bounded off down the hall, its little claws clacking against the tile rapidly as it flung itself into flight.

"Hey!" Satoshi called out after it, but the yellow creature just let out a rather multipurpose cry and took a sharp turn as the hallway split off, skidding as it angled itself right, and vanished beyond his sight. For a second, Satoshi wondered if he was supposed to follow the pokemon, but when he heard the answering call of another creature (an Umbreon, maybe?) he realized Pikachu was just saying goodbye to a friend it must have made at the hospital before they had to leave.

He turned to his mother. "Mom, you'll make sure Pikachu gets back all right, won't you?"

"Okay, dear," his mother intoned for the second time. He smiled wistfully at her, then turned and walked to the glass door labeled, oddly, not 'EXIT' but 'OUT.'

The bright sun pouring in and refracting through the barrier left little doubt that this was a door leading _out_, and not to some stank closet, office, or room. As Satoshi stepped into the spilled sun rays that spread out before the entryway, Satoshi felt the healthiest ever since he'd come in to the hospital. Then the door opened and he was as out as much as in, overpowered by dazzlingly bright sun, the cries of bird and insect pokemon, and a mash up of colors in every hue and shade.

_"Hanako, my dear flower!_" he heard a voice cry out faintly behind him, but it barely registered as he crossed over. The door shut with an automated 'whir,' and then he was truly surrounded. He blinked several times, and the world slowly dropped itself into view.

The sky was blue like pouring water, clear and perfect with foamy clouds drifting on the very edges of the vaulted atrium. The afternoon was getting on, and it was perfect for the deck: there wasn't a speck of shadow but for a small gray smudge behind him that stretched in long and easy lines. The garden had just been watered, and it was pungent with the sweet perfume of early summer grasses and and flowers in pots lining the edges of the balcony. He walked to the railing, and when h reached out, he found the painted wood to be warm under his hands. He stilled and absorbed the scene that lay beyond.

A crescent of trees stood just beyond the garden, their bones invisible beneath draping, leafy wreaths. He could see the hints of Swailow and Tallow nests hiding in the cradles between branches, and even what might have been a darker nook where a Noctowl took refuge during the day. Light dappled in here and there, only sometimes hitting the tawny forest floor. Further on - and not that far at all, really - was the desert, more tangible than visible. It only peaked out between the foliage, yellow and hazy, with a substance that reminded him a bit of dreams. In it was something not overtly organic, perhaps, but nonetheless constantly changing in shape and form.

He closed his eyes and let himself be wrapped in senses and feelings that weren't unfamiliar. He'd been to this site before, years ago. Those memories weren't sharp, but the connecting ones were, and he fondly began to remember the months of walking and the perpetual dirt beneath his fingernails, the smell of pine woods that never seemed to really leave his backpack or his clothes…. Other sweaty smells wouldn't leave, either. But they were good smells. Good memories. Things that had made him feel alive. Things he had slowly forgotten long before he had ever come to the hospital, or even Alph, or even to Pallet Town after he'd won the Championship.

He stood in the sunlight and felt like he was himself again.

The heat fell over his shoulders almost like an embrace as he breathed and his heart echoed, evening out.

After some time had passed, he heard the door open with quiet, mechanical smoothness behind him. As he was caught with a draft of cold, filtered air-conditioning escaping into the afternoon, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up curiously. He shivered, and rubbed the goose-bump speckled skin of his biceps. The sun at least was unbroken, and continued to seep into his skin. He tried to lean himself into it.

"Just another minute, okay?" he asked vacantly.

_"Satoshi."_

He whipped around.

Shigeru half-stood, half-leaned against the frame with his arms crossed with defiant indifference - the way he had done so many times in Tano's that Satoshi struggled to convince himself that he wasn't just seeing a memory overlapping with his present. But no; he was certain that they weren't in the city of Alph anymore. They were standing together on the balcony of a hospital. And it had to be the real Shigeru who was with him, wearing a white cotton v-neck, loose khakis pants replete with poke-gear and belt, a pair of boots, and a familiar smirk. They were themselves and they were home, and the thought compelled him to smile and take a step forward.

"It's _you_," he said, caught in wonder. Shigeru shrugged cooly, his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah," he said. "At least it was me the last time I checked."

"They said you were dead."

"And I'm not." Shigeru walked the rest of the way out to meet him. "Aren't you the least bit surprised to see me?"

"Nope. I had a feeling that you'd find me if I couldn't find you first. I _knew_ it was real."

And so was this. Satoshi could feel Shigeru's presence now as easily as he could feel his own skin. And there were other things that he just couldn't imagine about Shigeru that were too convincing to be part of a dream. The auburn in his hair was glowing the way that metal did when it had melted fully in a flame, and its vibrancy distracted Satoshi momentarily. Shigeru didn't seem to notice his gaze, perhaps because he was squinting in the light which he hadn't adjusted to yet.

"I could have still been dead, you know," Shigeru told him. "It was a close thing."

Satoshi tilted his head. "You mean, during the earthquake?"

"No, after the earthquake. I was buried in it."

"Wait," said Satoshi, confused. "Which one?"

"Ha-ha. You know which one," he said, "The one we were in together."

And then suddenly his non-plussed exterior gave itself away as a blush spread across his nose. Satoshi felt his heart skipping beats. He tried not to think about the last earthquake and their kiss, and failed for that exact reason.

"I had a really, _really _mild case of hypothermia," Satoshi offered. "That's why they put me in the hospital. But you probably heard that already, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"Figures. Anyway, I just wanted to be outside. The sun feels so good after everything." He stretched out his arms to emphasis the point, and wondered why Shigeru had nothing to say in return. As far as he could tell, Shigeru looked like he was in control again, or at least like he was _trying _to be. But that didn't make sense.

"Shigeru…"

"Can we talk somewhere that's not here?" Shigeru asked abruptly.

"Sure," said Satoshi, startled from his own thoughts. Shigeru moved off so quickly that Satoshi could hardly process he was leaving until he had already walked halfway across the balcony. Satoshi jogged to catch up, and together they to descended a short flight of white, wooden stairs leading to the rest of the garden.

"What's the hurry?" Satoshi protested, huffing with exertion.

Shigeru spoke tightly as he walked, keeping his gaze ahead. "I've just been trying to think of how to explain and-"

"Explain what?"

"_Everything_. Anyway, the point is that it would take too much time, so I decided not to bother."

"Because I'd be confused either way," Satoshi accused.

They emerged on the ground level, where the garden swarmed with tall grasses and azalea bushes budding in pink and white. Shigeru surveyed the area calculatingly. Bewildered, Satoshi let himself be led alongside the building and to the bottom of the balcony, where the wooden ballasts holding up the deck were white latticework. At their bases, the grasses were speckled with dandelions.

"Yes, you would be. Also, here is good," Shigeru declared, as if he'd taken a measurement and was confirming its validity. Satoshi had just began to wonder _what_ 'here' could be good for when Shigeru's hand took ahold of his shoulders and pushed them straight back into the white cross of lattice behind him. The air shot out of his lungs and he coughed.

"Hey!" he gasped. "What're you-"

"Making things clear."

Eyes wide open in surprise, Satoshi quickly took in his surroundings. Shigeru's body was pinning him in place, that his arm had settled firmly above his head. Everything inside of him that he could feel was going into shock. His blood was pumping furiously, his skin tingling, his head reeling, all with anticipation as Shigeru angled his head, leaned in, and kissed him hard.

Satoshi grabbed onto Shigeru's shirt, pulling him closer. _Finally_! he thought, and _Yes! _as his body was flooded with feelings again.

Their mouths opened, and their tongues collided. Their hands, which had been still, began moving out to feel the shape of arms, backs. Shigeru groaned and dug into Satoshi with his thigh, swept his hand through Satoshi's hair and cupped the back of his neck, drawing him close. Satoshi was suddenly reminded of dancing with Shigeru under the moonlight, the long drags in which they danced as they new wandered across the hidden rooms of each other's mouths, twisting, guiding and engaging. They were partners learning the feel of each other, their souls slowly building a rhythm, and as they touched, their bodies only followed by natural consequence.

When they broke apart, gasping for air, Satoshi opened his eyes and wasn't too surprised that Shigeru's knee had found its way between his thighs. It, and the wall behind him, were the only things holding him up, after all. He blinked back the light that poured into his vision, and Shigeru's face seemed so ethereal that he thought that he'd rather _not _breathe if it meant they could kiss again, but when Satoshi aimed to move forward, Shigeru diverted him at the last moment, and the kiss landed at the skin beneath his ear.

Shigeru laughed and flinched away slightly. Satoshi could feel the rumble of his laughter against his chest. Rather bemused, he thought to himself that if he lifted up his hand, he could probably touch the source of it, somewhere deep in Shigeru's throat. And then he found himself laughing as well, letting it fly out of him until there was nothing left but a warm, settled feeling in his stomach. It was the only feeling that Satoshi could wrap his head around in that moment. Shigeru's kiss was grounding him, making him feel as if he were, if perhaps not at one with nature, than at least at one in himself and maybe at one with someone else.

"What," Satoshi managed eventually, after they'd relaxed into each other's arms, "was that all about?"

"I'm ticklish under my ears."

"Not that, the _rest_."

"Oh," said Shigeru, catching his breath. "I wanted to kiss you right this time."

Satoshi turned up his chin and looked at Shigeru's face from the vantage point of his shoulder. The skin on his cheek filled Satoshi's vision, and it was all very close, and warm. Satoshi wanted to touch it, so he did. It was soft for the most part, but scratchy as well.

"What," he asked, "Do you think something was wrong last time?"

Shigeru's voice was incredulous. "Are you serious? When you woke up on this side, weren't you even _slightly _upset, or at least a _bit _confused about why I'd asked about your feelings and not said anything back? And then, about why I kissed you?"

Satoshi shrugged and felt Shigeru's arms rise and fall with the motion over his shoulders. "It sucked."

"See? I-"

"It sucked," he interrupted, "when you didn't say anything after I told you that I loved you. My expectations weren't high, so it wasn't as bad as it could've been, I guess, but I…"

Satoshi had too much pride to go any farther, but he was glad that Shigeru didn't push. His arms tightened around him, and Satoshi wished, for a moment, that he never had to leave that position; that he could be given the gift of standing in the grass with Shigeru, literally wrapped up in their feelings, for the rest of their lives.

"I'm sorry," Shigeru said quietly.

"It's okay. Right before the end, when you looked at me… I knew. I could tell you cared about me."

"Yeah, but how long did it take? I wanted to tell you as soon as I realized that you might… that you might feel the same. But by then I was worried that if I did anything to force you along, then we wouldn't accomplish the whims of the legend. It wasn't like some established thing that we _would _succeed, and by then it was just a matter of time before we were going to die… and I know it might have been wrong, but I just wanted you to be safe more than I wanted you to be happy. You understand why I did that, right?"

Satoshi just shook his head. "Yeah. I mean it sucked _then _but… Can we just not talk about this anymore? It's over, right?"

"Satoshi…"

"I'm serious, Shigeru. I don't care whether or not we were in a dream for the past week or if we were actually in the past for a couple of months. I was glad you were there with me. I had fun. And right now, I'm just glad you're here again, _alive," _he said, firmly adding: "And that you love me too."

Satoshi could feel Shigeru's heart rate take a sudden leap. "Wait a second, I didn't say I-" he protested.

"Just shut up, okay?" Satoshi told him, and just to make sure that he would, he covered Shigeru's mouth with his own.

Dimly, Satoshi heard a voice calling out his name.

Shigeru seemed to have heard it too, and they quickly disentangled from each other. Satoshi craned his neck awkwardly to see if anyone was on the balcony while Shigeru tugged ineffectually at his hair in an attempt to restyle it. Satoshi had to admit that having perpetually unkempt hair had its advantages.

"How long do you think we have until we have to go back out?"

"Probably no more than a few minutes, especially if Pikachu's looking for me," Satoshi answered. Then, he put a hand in Shigeru's bangs and mussed it up just to be annoying.

Shigeru swatted at him. "Do you _want _it to look like we were making out?"

"Do you?" asked Satoshi, suddenly distracted. His brain, for the first time, started to think about what it meant to love Shigeru.

It had been so easy in Alph. All that had mattered was how he felt. No one else's opinion had ever come into play, then - excepting Shigeru's, of course. Would anyone else's opinion matter now? And even if he didn't want them to matter, was it possible that they still might?

"You know," he said to Shigeru, who had shifted his full attention from his shirt to Satoshi, "Things aren't going to be the same as they were in Alph. I mean, people know us here, and expect… all sorts of stuff from us. I'm a league champion, and even though I haven't been doing my job lately, I'm pretty sure there's things that it means. There are expectations, you know? Things I'm supposed to do, things I'm not supposed to do."

Here, Satoshi lost his place. Shigeru urged him. "Go on."

"Is this going to be one of them?" he asked in a burst, "Are we going to be together, or not?"

"What do you want?"

"What do _you _want?"

"You," Shigeru admitted. "And I'm not going to give you up. If it's a problem for us to be together openly, we'll just figure something out."

Satoshi relaxed and let out a shallow breathe. "Good." He wasn't sure why he felt so relieved to hear Shigeru tell him those words; after all, he hadn't really expected another answer. But… maybe the answer wasn't the point. Maybe he'd needed to hear it for a different reason - perhaps because he needed it to be said to him, first, this time. "I want to be with you, too."

Shigeru stared at him as if trying to figure out one of his puzzles, his smile bemused. Satoshi found it strange being the object of that discerning attention, but not unpleasant.

"You really have changed," he said at last.

This wasn't what Satoshi had expected to hear. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Relax. It's not a bad thing. You used to act like you were still a kid before we went to Alph, and now you don't."

Satoshi couldn't see it, but then, he knew he was a bit behind on self-reflection. He hadn't even looked in a mirror since he'd come back from the Unown's world. He tried to contextualize the idea by looking at Shigeru, appraising him in hopes to discover an answering change in himself. He was taken aback to discover that, in a way, it felt like he was seeing him for the first time.

Objectively, Shigeru looked about the same as he had in Alph, and almost the same as he had _before _they'd gone there, but something had changed in his eyes. With a rush, Satoshi realized that they weren't angry anymore. They were at peace, just like the sky.

"You've changed too."

"_Everything_'s changed," Shigeru agreed. "I know it's just been a day since we came here, so it's not been a long enough time to tell for sure, but everything that's been familiar to me here seems like it's been turned on its head. Rooms don't look the same anymore. People don't act like I expect them to…"

He paused as the phone on his pokegear lit up and began to buzz. Someone was looking for them, probably, but he didn't seem to care, and silenced it with a quick tap of his hand.

"What did you expect?" Satoshi pushed him, and he shrugged.

"I don't know. But not this. Last night, it felt weird just sleeping on a sofa at the campsite. I can't even imagine what it would be like doing work in the trenches. I don't think I could stand it, and you know what? I don't think I will. I made up my mind this morning. I've been living at Alph for years, and this was my first time to leave since I began. I feel unburdened, almost like I'd been living under a curse put onto me by the Unown themselves. Does that sound stupid?"

"No, I don't think so. But what are you going to do now? Do you have any ideas?"

"A few," he admitted, "Though nothing solid."

Satoshi thought about this, and couldn't help feeling the strangest sense of empathy. "It's hard, isn't it."

"What do you mean?"

"My mom said I could go back home. But as soon as she thinks I've recovered from my injuries, I'm pretty sure she'll just kick me out again. I'd rather find something to do before I find myself without any options, you know? It's not easy figuring out where to go next. So I guess we're in the same position."

"Well," said Shigeru, after a moment's consideration. "We could be."


	27. Chapter 27 Epilogue

Author's Note at the end, for all my dear readers.

* * *

**In Ruins**

Epilogue

* * *

_"So, Shigeru Ookido, could you review your findings in a few words?"_

_The reporter stretched out her boom microphone toward the stage, and the auburn-haired researcher standing in the center of it, looked down at her from his podium with a tolerant, slightly puzzled nod. He had his own microphone after all, and he spoke clearly into it as he answered, ignoring her offered hand._

_"Well, you see…" he began so evenly that his words had to have been practiced:"It's a very complicated tale, so for a full explanation, I would refer the interested viewer to my most recent paper "The Legendary History of Alph" published with my colleague, Yamatoshi Tano of Johto University." Here, a sneer was just barely dodged by a genuine smile: "But to summarize, we've discovered that the Unown are indeed responsible for the founding and the disbanding, ultimately, of the ancient civilization of Alph. This was done by the performance of psychic energy, and the manufacturing of illusions. This information was obtained firsthand by myself and my friend Satoshi, whom you might be familiar with as the Pokemon League Champion."_

_An excited murmur swept through the audience off-camera._

_"The Unown created, on top of an existing ancient environment, an illusory world built out of Satoshi's - and sometimes, my own - memories. The hybrid dimension that we were placed in functioned off of Satoshi's key desires - both realized and unrealized. His desire to be alone warred with his desire to be with the people he loved. And these desires, when paired with his actions (manifested in emotional outbursts), ultimately gave the Unown both the motive and the power to create and deconstruct a reality that…"_

"Listen to me. I sound like a psychologist."

"Shh," said Satoshi, bending his hand over his eyes. He strained to see the television past the glare in the glass of the shop window. "The volume's muffled through the glass. I can barely hear you."

"It's not like you haven't heard it before."

"But I haven't! I missed this part of the conference after all the ten year olds started rioting."

"Your fault, not mine," Shigeru pointed out, tuning back in to the program.

_"… and it resulted, ultimately, with the Unown being able to control their massive power and for the people of Alph to expand and explore surrounding areas." Shigeru concluded. "Does that answer your question?"_

_"I'm sorry, are you saying that the Unown are psychologically manipulative masterminds? Do you think they're evil?"_

_"Umm… That's really a bit much," said Shigeru, though his face was clearly conflicted. A few people in the audience chuckled at his discomfort._ _"I think the Unown meant well, and still do today I suppose. But, here's the issue: just because they are able to make contact with the human psyche, it doesn't mean that they're able to understand the human psyche, much less all of the moral and ethical issues that come with creating false realities or creating closed-circuit escapes."_

_"When you say closed-circuit, are you referring to the legend? It was left very ambiguous in your report about what the legend actually was."_

_"Unfortunately," said Shigeru, pausing for emphasis, "the Unown were very ambiguous about the legend's nature to us, as well. The legend may have never actually existed in a way that makes intellectual sense, as much as it existed intuitively."_

"You made that way more complicated than you had to."

"True," Shigeru admitted, "but I think they would've been kind of shocked if I'd said 'we intuitively wanted to make out with each other.'"

_"Then how in the world did you escape using the legend as a device?" pitched in an older man off-camera._

_"From the start of my experience, the Unown were focused on fulfilling the desires of the person who they had keyed into: as long as he was able to reach out and grasp what he really wanted, so to speak, the illusion would end by default. In this case, in order to overcome the power of the Unown, that person had to make the desires latent in his illusions desires that he could manifest in his own reality. The only reason we even were fortunate enough to have the riddle of the legend is due to my companion's uncanny knack for having legends attached to him. He wouldn't have seen his time in Alph as an appropriate adventure without having had a legend, or prophecy, to fulfill."_

_"How many unique prophecies has Satoshi been involved with, Ookido-san?"_

_"At least five," said Shigeru, nonchalant._

"Hey! There've only been four!" Satoshi defended himself.

"Yeah, sure. Four that you can think of off of the top of your head," Shigeru rolled his eyes. "There's probably some that you don't even _remember._"

"Hmph." Losing interest, Satoshi moved over toward another television screen on a much more prominent pedestal. Pikachu was watching it with obvious interest, evidenced by sparks emitting from her cheeks. "Anyway, look. There I am," he said, and pointed proudly.

"You're always on the news.," Shigeru complained. "Let me enjoy my moment in glory a moment longer." He turned back to the sharp LCD screen and smiled indulgently at himself. "I can't believe they're showing this on mainstream T.V… You know what, it better not be just because you were involved."

"Hmm," said Satoshi, already tuning him out and looking at the digital rendering of his face on the screen. The caption beneath Satoshi's face read in capitals, P.L. CHAMPION SETTLING DOWN, RE-OPENING GYM IN JOHTO.

His television self, too, was swarmed with reporters, though he had to admit that his reporters seemed much more pushy - and had far too many boom microphones - to keep his interview as focused as Shigeru's had been.

_"Why Hiwada Town in Johto?" one of the reporters was asking him, adjusting her chic wireless-rimmed glasses._

_"Well," said Satoshi, bumbling a bit as he tried to rescue his Pikachu from a reporter's grabby hands, "Mostly because there's a gym that's gone defunct in the leader, Tsukushi's, absence. I heard there are a lot of locals who would like to reopen the gym, but lack battling experience, so I figured I would help them out."_

_"That sounds like you're building some sort of advanced poke-school… It's hardly appropriate work for someone of your skill level!"_

_"Pokeschool? Come on, I didn't say I was going to become a teacher, did I? It's not like that's all I'm going to be doing anyway. I'll be training my pokemon in the meantime as well," he added slyly, and looked directly into the camera. "And catching up with old friends. If any of my old friends want to visit me for a challenge or just for a visit, I'm only a short hop away by Goldenrod's Bullet Train."_

Even in Satoshi's eyes now, he looked almost overly-sincere - It was kind of embarrassing. He was glad that Shigeru was too busy watching himself preen.

He turned back to the TV with his image.

_"Isn't it true that you recently came out of a coma induced by the Unown, along with your childhood friend and rival, Shigeru Ookido?" the reporter was asking him._

_"Erm, not a coma, actually… But fortunately, both of us have fully recovered from the experience, and Shigeru will soon be resuming his research, just like I'm looking forward to battling again, and-"_

_"We understand that Ookido will also be moving to Hiwada Town, to study ancient time travel pokemon in the Ubame forest. Do you have any comments on that?"_

_"Yeah! I'm really glad Shigeru's going to be moving close by to me. We have a very close relationship."_

"Oh, that's cute," said Shigeru, lightly slugging Satoshi's arm.

"Oww," Satoshi complained, "You can't do that. I don't have tough muscles there anymore; that hurts again."

"Then you better start working out," said Shigeru, bending over to pick a brown bag filled with groceries. "You could carry half of the groceries by yourself for a start. The fact that Pikachu likes riding on your shoulder isn't an excuse you can use forever, you know."

"Pi pika," affirmed Satoshi's pokemon with matching confidence.

Satoshi looked down at his Pikachu, and stuck out his tongue. "What would you know," he said fondly.

"Pikachuuu," it answered, squirming out of Satoshi's loosely held arms and moving up onto Shigeru's shoulder.

"You can stay there for now," said Shigeru, looking down at it with playful sternness, "But you have to get down before Umbreon sees you. You know how jealous she gets."

"You didn't bring her with you today?" asked Satoshi as they turned away from the screens and began walking down the street.

"Nah. It was a lot of desk work. I figured she would rather stay in the house."

"Paperwork already? You barely set up your lab two weeks ago!"

"Exactly! That's hardly enough time to get all my sources together, much less to read them."

"Hey, as long as it's you and not me. Tell me before you go into the forest, though, okay? I wouldn't mind coming with you and seeing an old friend."

"I wouldn't leave you out," Shigeru affirmed, readjusting his bags. A loaf of bread threatened to topple out from the top, and wavered precariously. This grabbed the attention of a nearby Slowpoke, who lifted its fat, pink head with effort as Shigeru and Satoshi walked by the concrete wall on which it was resting.

"Sloooo-" it began to say.

They both froze.

"Oh, now you've done it," Satoshi said to Shigeru.

"-ooooo-" yawned the pokemon. His toes scratched the concrete as he shifted slowly, awkwardly to his feet. Pikachu jumped off of Shigeru's shoulder, prepared to answer any command from his trainer. The speed of the movement showed the energy that still had it charged up from a day full of battling.

Satoshi called it back calmly. "We're not going to attack, Pikachu."

"Then let's get out of here." Shigeru scowled at the dopey pink creature. "Geez, that's an annoying sound. Small wonder Team Rocket started cutting off their tails..."

"And show him where we live? No way. He'll just arrive a few hours after we get home, asking for food, interrupting our sleep-"

"Sleep," Shigeru drawled, "Is that what it's called these days?"

"-ooooowpoke?" finished the pokemon, ambling to his feet.

"Give him the fish sandwiches," suggested Satoshi. "Maybe it'll distract him."

Shigeru looked at Satoshi incredulously. "You actually bought those?" he asked as he dug his hand through the bag, and Satoshi grinned. "Yeah, I thought the fish sandwiches would be funny. A good memory, you know, like old times in Alph."

Just as Shigeru fished the sandwiches from the grocery bag, several things happened. The Slowpoke in front of them perked up with unusual speed, the scent apparently stimulating it to action. At the same time, Pikachu began growling its name and emitting sparks from its cheeks.

"Pika!" cried out the little pokemon, turning to face them, its gazed fixed on something beyond their legs.

Satoshi and Shigeru turned. _"Three more?_"

"All right," Satoshi admitted, backing away instinctively. "It's too late to try a diversion. Let's make a run for it!"

"Pikachu!" agreed Satoshi's pokemon. But the Slowpoke also seemed to understand. Faced with the prospect that their meal might be about to take off, they began loping towards Satoshi and Shigeru with vapid expressions.

It was horrifying. Satoshi, Shigeru, and Pikachu took off at a dead sprint.

"Good work, Satoshi," Shigeru panted as the street fell away behind them. Satoshi could feel himself blushing. "You're the one who suggested I feed it!" he parried back.

"Well you should have known better, being League Champion and all-"

"Being Champion," he panted, "is more about pokemon battling, okay? Not about random pokemon habits-"

A few items threatened to fall from his shopping bag, and Satoshi stumbled in his flight, attempting to catch them. Pikachu chirped anxiously as it waited for his owner to catch up to him. But in fact they were slowing down, dropping from their frenzied pace to a gentle lope, and finally a fast walk. The Slowpoke were nowhere in sight.

Shigeru wiped sweat off of his forehead. "You know, this wouldn't have been necessary if you'd just used Pikachu to shock them into submission-"

"And leave them there, half-dead? No way, that's not ethical. Plus the townspeople would have a fit!"

"So? It's provably self-defense!"

"Pikaaaa-" the pokemon sneezed, a few sparks coming out. "-chuu."

"Stop it, Pikachu," Satoshi groaned. "We are not an old married couple!"

The pokemon rolled its eyes, then darted ahead of them. Shigeru hazarded a glance behind them. "Hey, look!" he said. Satoshi did. The Slowpoke were growing further and further away. Reshuffling his bag as he turned back around, he followed Pikachu and Shigeru down a verdant path that swung off of the main road to the left, leading up a gentle hill. Their pace slowed further - it was hard enough to run with so much baggage, but this was especially true as they made their way up the mild slope past cottages with conifer trees, stony chimneys, painted doors and gardens fully in bloom. Finally the path turned to gravel. Satoshi concentrated fiercely on the sound of each pebble picking up and dropping; anything to ignore the acid burn in his legs. He'd spent most of the day at the gym, running around _before _making the trip home, after all; he didn't have much energy left to spare.

Pikachu, who had been contentedly running at heel, now bounded ahead of them toward the last cottage on the row. It was set back in a cloister of pine trees, the front yard encircled by a low, white picket fence. It jumped over the fence and Satoshi heard Umbreon barked happily from the other side.

"Really, Pikachu," scoffed Shigeru as they approached the fence surrounding the cottage. He had mostly regained his breath."An old married couple?"

Satoshi was surprised that he was still thinking about it.

"We've barely been living together for two weeks," he agreed. Shouldering the grocery bag on one arm, he used his other hand to lift the latch of the white gate, swing it out in front of them and walk inside. "Not counting the months together in Alph. Plus you only _just _had your birthday so you won't be twenty and an adult for another year! Seriously, you have to wonder what that pokemon is thinking sometimes."

"Yeah," Shigeru agreed, grinning only with one side of his mouth. "It's almost as if it knows its trainers better than they do."

Satoshi collapsed in one of the chairs at the breakfast table, and gulped back a cup of water that had been left over from breakfast. He dropped the ceramic glass back onto table and sighed with deep satisfaction. The tension, the activity of the day slowly began to drain out of his shoulders and arms. Light spilled in from the bay window onto the table and all of its assorted contents; papers covered with knick knacks, a couple of plates and a potted herb that hadn't yet found a home. He could feel the light playing against his hands, warm but not hot enough to make him sweat. The breeze helped. It swept in from the sunny back yard through the propped open glass door on the far end of the long, clay-tile floored kitchen. The wind ruffled his hair like a caring hand. He took another swig of water, and the cubes of ice tinkled in his glass.

Shigeru walked in from the hallway abruptly, his phone up to his ear. "Yes," he was saying into the mouthpiece. "Everything here is fine-"

Umbreon trailed after him, the handles of two grocery bags in its mouth. Satoshi wondered why the grocery bags appeared lighter than they had been before, and quickly got his answer. Pikachu followed into the room behind Umbreon, practically bouncing on its two long feet as it carried a jar of mayonnaise, a carton of milk, and a couple of apples into the room. The procession made their way to the refrigerator, where Shigeru was shuffling the contents of the shelves while listening to his pokegear phone, balanced between his ear and his shoulder. He had a long-suffering look on his face as he listened.

"Of course we're being well-fed, Grandpa…" Shigeru took the groceries from the pokemon with a gracious nod, and let them run off after each other into the backyard. "Yes, and we're completely moved in… I'd show you the cottage right now, but you know my pokegear monitor is still broken…"

"Liar," Satoshi mouthed at him as soon as Shigeru looked up. He just shrugged, however, as if to say he couldn't be expected to help himself, but smiled at Satoshi. Satoshi felt himself smiling back for no reason.

But maybe it had something to do with the way Shigeru looked at the moment, standing in the open kitchen with the light of the porch flooding in from behind him. As he smiled, his features - which Satoshi had remembered as a child being so sharp and spiky - now seemed soft, even though not much about them had objectively changed.

"You seem happy."

Satoshi froze. Shigeru had hung up the phone while he'd been lost in thought, and now he had to pay the price - he'd been caught being _sentimental_, of all things. He flushed, and defended, "I don't know what you're thinking but-"

"Don't worry. I'm not mistaking it for something else." Shigeru slipped into the chair across from him, and kicked his shin lightly with the toe of his sock. "I like the house, too."

"It _is _a nice place," Satoshi agreed. "And completely covered in azaleas."

"Yeah. I guess this place isn't called Hiwada town for nothing. Anyway, it's nice."

Satoshi gave him a sly look. "I think you just like it because it reminds you of the day we first kissed."

"The day we first kissed _here,_" Shigeru reminded him, but the blush that cropped up on the crest of his cheeks betrayed him.

"Wasn't there a white fence there, too?" continued Satoshi. "Are you a closet romantic or something?"

"Satoshi, I'll kill you in your sleep."

"What would your grandfather say?"

"Actually, you don't want to know." Shigeru put up a hand, stopping the playful banter. "No, seriously. You don't. He's… sentimental."

"Okay…." Satoshi dropped the topic, writing it off to Shigeru's occasional weirdness. He swept his fingertip around the cool rim of his cup, picking up beads of condensation as he went. A few dripped down anyway, blotching the lines of a boldly calligraphed letter from Takeshi. "Anyway, if you've finished putting the groceries away, let's get started in the studio already. I thought of a cool new decoration I wanna try on my next glass."

Shigeru put a hand on the back of Satoshi's chair and leaned down. Satoshi craned his neck to look at him. "What is it?"

"What did Takeshi say in the letter?"

"Oh. He and Kasumi are getting married." Satoshi picked up his cup and passed the letter over, stealing a swig of water in the process.

"Aren't they still kind of young to make a decision like that?" Shigeru scanned the message quickly. "Kasumi's my age, right?"

"Yeah, she is. It's weird."

Shigeru put down the letter. "How so?"

Satoshi shrugged, twisted in the chair to face Satoshi. "I just don't know how she can be so certain about Takeshi and marriage. It's just… _forever_."

"Huh. I can't imagine being stuck with _either_ of them forever," Shigeru commented, turning his face away to the window. There was nothing outside to look at besides the waving camellia bushes, and Satoshi could tell that he was thinking. That he was _over-thinking, _probably.

"When I said that, I wasn't talking about us," he hazarded.

"So? The point still stands."

"Yeah… I guess you're right. Sometimes I don't get how people can make one choice they know they'll always be happy about, that's all." Satoshi covered Shigeru's hand with his own. Shigeru looked back at him, willing to reveal to Satoshi an expression that hovered at the edge of hurt. Satoshi moved his bravery to the limits and plunged forward. "But sometimes, even most of the time, I feel like I _could_ make a choice like that with you. Like the only thing I'd ever want in the world would be just to stay like this. To know that things will always be this good. It's different from before, when I was just wanting to be the best. Being a pokemon master was all about ambition. But the only time I've ever felt like I've ever been happy _exactly where I was_, it was when I've been with you."

Shigeru bent down and kissed him. Satoshi could feel the senses of appeasement, the pleasure, even the love in the touch. Moved, he reached out pulled Shigeru further down by the lapel of his lab coat, tilting his head to deepen the kiss, but Shigeru broke away.

"You know I'm not planning on going anywhere," he said, serious.

"Except for that camping trip next month in the forest, right?"

Shigeru rolled his eyes. "It's not a camping trip, it's _research._ Besides, I was thinking of bringing you along, if you still wanted to go…"

"Of course I do!" Satoshi confirmed. "I'm ready for another adventure."

"Funny. I had a feeling you'd say that," said Shigeru.

* * *

**Author's Note**

And thus, after four years, I've finished my first full-length novel… It's hard to believe that I'm rolling the credits at long last! It's going to be strange having days go by without thoughts of Alph and Unown circling in my head. Thanks go to my beta and friend Vivian, first, for having walked through and discussed a lot. She's responsible for a lot of updates when I didn't know where to go, and a lot of little edits that made this story stronger and more in character. She helped with a lot of spell-check and grammar flubbing, too. So applause to this sweet lady is indeed in order.

Thanks of course go to all my readers. Your reviews, each one of them (each one of you), have been cherished and read dozens of times. Each time I've had writer's block or sit down to write I've gone over them, revising and rewriting. This is after I usually dance around my room with excitement, of course. You guys have made this process such a joy! Thank you to all of you who have read with me since the beginning, since the middle, even from the end.

Thanks also goes to Snow Patrol (laugh). I don't know if it's appropriate to thank a band for indirectly assisting me, but for whatever reason, their music has been wildly inspiring for this story, especially the songs "Warmer Climate," "Tiny Little Fractures" and "You're All I Have."

And now… after all that's been said and done, I have a niggling idea for a sequel. But I suppose I shouldn't say anything more than that.

Take care everyone, and until next time.

It's been a great run.

Love,

Lanie


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